Cecilia Brunson Projects Present Feliciano Centurión at the Frieze Masters Spotlight

Feliciano Centurión, Mi casa es mi templo [My house is my temple], 1996. Embroidery with inclusion on fabric, 53 x 63 cm

13 – 17 October 2021

Cecilia Brunson Projects is delighted to announce that it will be participating in Frieze Masters Spotlight this year. In collaboration with Galeria Millan, São Paulo, it will present a survey of work by Paraguayan-born artist, Feliciano Centurión (1962 – 1996).

The invitation to showcase Centurión’s work at Frieze follows the first ever UK exhibition of his work at Cecilia Brunson Projects in 2019. Some of the works to be shown at Frieze were featured in Affective Affinities at the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo in 2019 and Americas Society’s Abrigo exhibition, his first solo show in the US, in February 2020.

Says Cecilia Brunson: ‘We are honoured to be given the opportunity to bring Centurión’s work to wider public attention. Over the last few years, interest in his work has heightened, both with institutions and collectors. Our presentation will not be just a display of his work, but a celebration of his life.’

For the presentation, Galeria Millan and Cecilia Brunson Projects, who has represented the artist’s estate since 2018, will display works dating up until 1996, the year of his death aged 34. One work in this selection, Flores Negras (1992) testifies to Centurión’s imaginative abstraction of flora and fauna to create a bold, energetic piece. In many of the works of this period, Centurión incorporates the most intimate household textiles – blankets, pillowcases and pillows – typically mass-produced and cheap. On these he sews beautifully intricate pieces of embroidery, patches and backgrounds of bright fabrics, as well as indigenous Guaraní tradition of Ñandutí lace, as a way of alluding to his birthplace after his move to Buenos Aires in the 1980s.

As a core member of the Arte Light movement and the artistic renovation of the Argentine cultural scene following the early disruptions in the 1980s, Centurión’s practice chimes with the kitsch aesthetic cultivated in the early 1990s which allowed artists to express their LGBTQ+ identities through exuberant expressions of joy. The artist painted exotic animals and natural forms on large, cheap synthetic blankets used for household packing and shelter for the homeless. For Centurión, as for a number of other artists in the scene, this exuberance was brought to an abrupt end by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The final phase of Centurión’s work meditated on his imminent death in profoundly moving poetry embroidered on found fabrics such as pillowcases and tablecloths. The works continued to decrease in size during his final years, allowing him to continue to produce art even when bedbound. Two works included in the selection are particularly poignant reflections on his mortality — a child’s apron bear stitched texts reading ‘La Casa es mi templo (My Home is my temple)’, and a small embroidered blanket with the words ‘El cielo es mi protección (Heaven is my protection)’.

Running concurrently, Cecilia Brunson Projects will be showing two other artists instrumental to artistic development in Brazil in their gallery space. In the main gallery, Cecilia Brunson Projects will be showing the first ever exhibition of work by Katie van Scherpenberg in Europe, and in their Viewing Room, works by the seminal Op-artist Luiz Sacilotto (1924-2003).

For press information, please contact Albany Arts Communications:

Carla von der Becke carla@albanyartscommunications.com t: +44 (0) 20 78 79 88 95; m: +44 (0) 79 74 25 29

Notes to Editors:

About the artist

Feliciano Centurión was born in San Ignacio de las Misiones, Paraguay, on March 20, 1962. By 1970 his family settled in Alberdi, Ñeembucu, on the border with Argentina. Under the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, Feliciano and his family were forced into exile to Argentina in 1973. In Formosa, Argentina, Centurión had a formal art education at the Oscar R. Albertozzi School of Fine Arts. In 1980, Centurion moved to Buenos Aires, attending the Pridiliano Pueyrredón School of Fine Arts and at the Ernesto de la Cárcova Superior School of Fine Arts. He participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, both in Asuncion, Paraguay, and in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as part of the group of artists linked to the Gallery of the Cultural Centre Ricardo Rojas (dependent of the University of Buenos Aires). He participated in the Fifth Biennial of Cuba (1992), and travelled to exhibit at the Maison de L’Amerique Latine in France. He died in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 7, 1996.

About Cecilia Brunson Projects

Founded in 2013, Cecilia Brunson Projects (CBP) is based in Bermondsey, London. The gallery exclusively specialises in historical and contemporary Latin American art. CBP’s objective is to provide a European platform that champions and celebrates Latin American artists —including those living and working abroad – through a yearly exhibition programme at its central location near Bermondsey Street. Active on both the primary and secondary market, CBP has established a reputation for introducing London audiences to some of the major figures of Modern and

Contemporary Latin American art, including Alfredo Volpi, Coco Fusco, Waltercio Caldas and Willys de Castro. Additionally, the gallery is dedicated to preserving and supporting artist estates, including Victor Magariños D. and Feliciano Centurión. Through having been the Associate Curator of Latin American Art at the Blanton Museum in Austin, Texas, and the Latin American Correspondent for Artforum, Cecilia acts as a consultant to major museums and public institutions and advises private and corporate collections.

About Frieze Masters Spotlight

Spotlight brings together solo presentations by radical and pioneering artists of the 20th century and is curated by Laura Hoptman, Executive Director, The Drawing Center in New York.

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