Alice Shintani (1971, São Paulo, SP) seeks one of the subtlest intersections that exist between art and everyday life. Her art does not comment on the news, nor does it impose itself on the urban fabric like an inert monument, but it deals rather with intimate experiences of everyday affections and violence, which are counterpointed by the gradual process of making, involving colors, shapes and light. Having studied and worked in computer engineering, Shintani transferred her practice to the arts in the mid 2000s. She avoided, however, conforming her production to the settings and structures of the established arts circuit. Though much of her work could be called painting, she feeds on direct experiences with the urban environment and societal events, experimenting at the same time with ways of circulating in varied contexts, among audiences less familiar with the liturgy of exhibition spaces.
Mata [Forest/Kill] (2020-2022) was developed gradually, without an established plan besides an inclination to make gouaches on paper, with compositions loosely based on elements of the Amazonian flora and fauna. The lines crossing the paper from edge to edge form broad schematic fields of color, creating tight framing that crops the shapes, rejecting the obligation to be technically descriptive, which is common to botanical illustrations, for example. All the images have a black painted background, an element that reinforces the brightness of the colors used by the artist, and which also acts as a metaphor for the uncertainty and obscurity that characterize the present moment.
