Lucas Arruda

Untitled (from the Deserto-Modelo series)

In Untitled (from the Deserto-Modelo series) by Lucas Arruda incisive power reveals itself in silence and over time, contradicting the ever-faster rhythms of life. His paintings are a vast inventory of the incidence of light in the atmosphere. This painting is reminiscent of John Constable’s Hampstead clouds or Armando Reveron’s coastal landscapes, but Arruda’s work has no address, it is elusive. His landscapes come from a restless negotiation with his materials, surfaces, and his own body’s exhaustion (the works need to be finished while still wet). In Lucas Arruda’s work there are lights that are a construction, and other lights that are stripping. What we understand as the sea line, for example, is a reflection of the gesture of removing some of the paint from the canvas with the hilt of a brush. We witness the slow passage of the many nuances that exist between dawn and dusk. Arruda’s complicity with the inclement weather reminds us that nature is relentless; his dense, enigmatic painting reiterates all the mystery that still exists beyond the earth’s surface. The limits of representation are affirmed as he reveals images that are always different, and yet the same.