Marta Penter g3270

MARTA PENTER otium

ARTIST RECEPTION SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 201 1 | 5–7PM

451 WEST BROADWAY, NYC | 212.387.0208 | CAMPTONGALLERY.COM

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absence 47 x 70 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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b u d dy 47 x 47 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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l at e a f t e r n o o n 43 x 62 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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does the world exist? 51 x 51 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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blue sea 51 x 51 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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the blue chair girl V 33 x 35 inches mixed media

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absent minded 47 x 70 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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the blue c h a i r g i r l III 33 x 59 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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immersion 47 x 47 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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the blue chair girl IV 33 x 35 inches mixed media

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shooting breeze 47 x 47 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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the blue chair girl ii 47 x 47 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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visages 51 x 51 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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the blue chair girl VI 33 x 59 inches mixed media

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snapshot 47 x 94 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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this is it 51 x 51 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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c a r n a va l i i 51 x 51 inches o i l o n c a n va s

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legs up 43 x 62 inches o i l o n c a n va s

M A R TA P E N T E R Brazilian painter Marta Penter’s latest series transports us to the lively beaches of

tones and figures float over pure white backgrounds. Yet her virtuosic realism, her

Born in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1957, Penter was involved in art from an early age. She

Santa Catarina, on the coast of Brazil, where groups of friends play in the surf and

expert rendering of the human body in all its various attitudes, gives her paintings

has exhibited at numerous galleries and art fairs both in Brazil and internationally,

stroll along the sand, solitary beachgoers sink into thought, and people laugh at

the authority and immediacy of photographs. A masterful figurative painter by any

including Galeria de Arte Mosaico in Porto Alegre, Brazil; Galeria Joao Lagoa,

private jokes while reclining in the sun. Penter is an artist deeply interested in human

assessment, Penter brings flesh and textiles, notoriously challenging subjects to

Portugal; and IV Bienal de Aquarela de Vina Del Mar, Chile. Despite her playful

connections, and particularly in the idea of intimacy; she chooses her subjects with

paint, alive on every canvas. Remarkably, her scenes appear all the more life-like for

interlude with color, Penter’s work remains largely monochromatic, focused on

an anthropological eye. In her paintings, subtle expressions of body language convey

being rendered in black and white.

a dynamic realism that weaves through intense detail to blurred views. As in the work of renowned artist Gerhard Richter, who likewise blurs the distinction between

entire personal histories and relationships; in fact, Penter studied psychology before becoming an artist, a sensibility that remains ever-present in her art. Her complex portraits describe not just moments in time, but slices of life. For the viewer, Penter’s work seems to float between real and imaginary states—a quality that is partly the result of her monochromatic style, infused in these latest paintings with small touches of color, such as a luminous sapphire blue that Penter hit upon after a trip to New York, when she sketched people lounging in the park using pencil and a blue ballpoint pen. As in the work of renowned artist Gerhard Richter, who likewise blurs the distinction between painting and photography, Penter’s carefully restricted palette both heightens and suppresses reality. On one hand, her paintings depict an altered world, where color is reduced to essential

Yet even more than her technical skill, it is Penter’s ability to engage the viewer in an intimate dialogue that truly sets her apart as an artist. Explaining her preference

painting and photography, Penter’s carefully restricted palette both heightens and suppresses reality.

for large-scale canvases, she cites her desire to fully immerse the viewer into each painting—to not only depict intimacy in a literal sense, but to recreate its energy. As art critic and professor Paula Ramos has written of Penter, “It is the human that touches and instigates her; the human is the essence of her thinking and work.” This deep sense of humanity, this profound celebration of others’ existence, radiates from each of her paintings. Like an antidote to a world of increasingly fast-paced, remote communication, Marta Penter’s art reminds us of the importance of personal connection and empathy.

4 5 1 W ES T B R OADWAY | NE W YO R K 212.387.0208 | CAMPTONGALLERY.COM