Maria Laet
Almost nothing

3+1 Arte Contemporânea is proud do present Quase um nada | Almost nothing, a solo exhibition by Maria Laet.

Maria Laet’s works are informed by actions and the results of subtle gestures and interventions in her multidisciplinary practice. The registration of these subtleties, ephemeral moments and invisible limits reveal the act as an archive.

For her second exhibition at the gallery, the artist will show a series of works spanning through different mediums – books, monotype, sculpture, video, amongst others – which are linked, both conceptually and visually, by the “poetics of the minimum”, as she puts it. The revelation of that which is absent, the outline of the negative against the positive, a silhouette of a shadow or the materialization of air inside a balloon – these are the phenomenon which interest Maria Laet, which captivates and bids her to dialogue. As a result, we are presented with these exercises, minimal by nature, that invite us to a contemplative state.

Maria Laet (Rio de Janeiro, 1982) concluded studies at PIESP, São Paulo, 2011-2012; received her MA in Theory and Practice of Transnational Art from Camberwell College of Art, London, UK, before receiving her Postgraduate in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design, London UK. She participated in art residencies such as Schloß Balmoral (Bad Ems, Germany, 2009), Carpe Diem Arte e Pesquisa (Lisbon, 2010), and Residency Unlimited (New York, 2014). She has exhibited her work individually since 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Paris, Lisbon, Milan, Lyon and New York. She participated in the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo: Affective Affinities, São Paulo, Brazil (2018) and the 18th Biennale of Sydney: All Our Relations (2012). Relevant exhibitions include: Quase um nada, OTIUM #4, IAC, Lyon, France (2019); Cosmogonies, au Gré des Éléments, MAMAC, Nice (2018); Video Art in Latin America, LAXART, Los Angeles (2017); La Vie Aquatique, Musée régional d’art contemporain, Occitanie/Méditerranée, France (2017); The Valise, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2017); Tangents, MSK, Ghent, Belgium (2015); Encruzilhada, Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro (2015); Rumors of the Meteore, 49 Nord 6 est – Frac Lorraine, Metz, France (2014); Everydayness, Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk, Poland (2014); From the Margin to the Edge, Somerset House, London (2012); Convite à Viagem (Rumos Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, 2012); and O Lugar da Linha (Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói and Paço das Artes in São Paulo (2010). Her work is part of collections such as MAM, Gilberto Chateaubriand, Rio de Janeiro; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói; 49 Nord 6 est – Frac Lorraine, Metz, France; MSK, Ghent, Belgium; AGI Verona, Itália; Uría Menéndez, Madrid/Lisbon; Maria Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation, Madrid; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and MoMA, New York, as well as other national and international collections.