Solo Show: Gringo à Brasileira by Patrícia Colmenero
Solo Show: Gringo à Brasileira
Brazilian art is cannibalistic. Growing up in a colonized country, artist Patrícia Colmenero became used to a diet of foreign references. Like many Brazilians searching for a language of their own, she learned to consume what came from elsewhere: European images, styles, canons, fantasies, violences. But what is consumed never returns unchanged. It returns digested, contaminated, mixed, regurgitated. Gringo à Brasileira brings together works by Patrícia Colmenero. The exhibition revisits colonial images of Brazil in order to devour them, transform them, and return them through an anthropophagic gesture. Borrowing the language of recipes, the title suggests an operation of digestion, mixture, and reinvention: the foreign gaze enters the menu and is prepared “Brazilian style," or “À Brasileira.” The colonial archive is not treated as a pure origin, but as residue, inheritance, copy, seasoning, and living matter. Throughout the works, figures historically seen as exotic, monstrous, or available for visual consumption look back. Portraiture ceases to function as document and becomes confrontation. Gringo à Brasileira prepares Brazil’s colonial past as a dish and serves it to the viewer.
Learn more: https://www.patriciacolmenero.com/visual-arts/gringo
Open to the public July 4, 5, 11 & 12, 11 AM–5 PM.
[Brazilian Portuguese version]
A arte brasileira é canibal. Crescendo em um país colonizado, a artista Patrícia Colmenero se acostumou a uma dieta de referências estrangeiras. Como muitos brasileiros em busca de uma expressão própria, ela aprendeu a comer o que vinha de fora: imagens, estilos, cânones, fantasias, violências europeias. Mas o que se come não volta igual. Volta digerido, contaminado, misturado, regurgitado. Gringo à Brasileira reúne trabalhos de Patrícia Colmenero. A exposição revisita imagens coloniais do Brasil para devorá-las, transformá-las e devolvê-las através de um gesto antropofágico.Tomando emprestada a linguagem das receitas, o título sugere uma operação de digestão, mistura e reinvenção: o olhar estrangeiro entra no cardápio e é preparado “à brasileira”. O arquivo colonial não é tratado como origem pura, mas como resto, herança, cópia, tempero e matéria viva. Nas obras, figuras historicamente vistas como exóticas, monstruosas ou disponíveis ao consumo visual olham de volta. O retrato deixa de ser documento e se torna confronto. Gringo à Brasileira prepara o passado colonial do Brasil como prato e o serve para o público.
Saiba mais em: https://www.patriciacolmenero.com/visual-arts/gringo
About the Artist in Residence
Patrícia Colmenero works across painting and film to challenge the ways immigrant women, and Latina women in particular, are made visible. Her Counter Ethnography series draws on devotional imagery, melodrama, and historical portraiture to create paintings of opened bodies, stitched surfaces, and displaced hearts that resist reduction. Alongside this, she is developing The Exodus of Iara, a short film following a young immigrant woman who arrives in the United States in pursuit of artistic desire. At Governors Island, she is bringing painting and film into dialogue with the architecture of the house itself. instagram.com/patcolmenero
How to get to Governors Island?
Ferry Location:
Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn Bridge Park (Pier 6), or Red Hook/Atlantic Basin
The ferry runs every 30 minutes. You can check the ferry schedule here.
Our House
NWNY's house is located at: 410A, Colonels Row
Once you get off the ferry, walk toward the QC Spa and continue following the street. Our house is the first house on the left.
A Day on Governors Island
There will be many other artist residency spaces and events happening throughout the island, and we encourage you to explore and visit other spaces as part of your day.
We also recommend bringing a reusable water bottle, as there are water refill stations throughout the island.
There are several restaurants and food vendors on Governors Island, as well as beautiful green areas perfect for walking, relaxing, or having a picnic. You are also welcome to bring your own food or snacks if you prefer.