WHERE ART INSPIRES CONNECTION

Sculpted
featuring work by

Lis Costa
 Vero Reato

February 25 - April 8, 2023

Were you under the impression that scalpels were just for doctors and concrete just for construction? Think again! Lis Costa and Vero Reato, the artists in TINT’s latest exhibition “Sculpted,” use tools and materials traditionally used for other practices, bringing the unexpected to fine art.

 

Costa’s journey into paper carving emerged from a desire to recreate different designs by exploring both organic and abstract shapes. Through experimentation, she found her unique style of sculpting paper. Using different sized scalpels, Costa makes light, clean, shallow incisions in white cotton paper. These cuts animate the paper, turning the pure white sheet into a complex pattern of shadows and light that give three-dimensionality to her works. Costa releases the fire, the dynamism, and the rhythm trapped inside a blank page.

 

Press Release

In Reato’s search for a flexible material suited to indoor and outdoor spaces, she discovered Ultra High Performance Fiber Concrete (UHPC). Using UHPC, Reato explores and interprets forms from nature as contemporary living design, seamlessly blending mineral and organic elements. In some works, Reato incorporates wood and bamboo, leaning into concrete’s ability to mimic other materials, giving the illusion of wood stumps or bark. In other works, glass beads evoke dewdrops and coral reefs. In yet other works, stainless steel rings provide an intergalactic experience. With the use of oxides, such as manganese, iron, and copper, concrete takes on metallic aspects, looking like cast iron, rusty steel, or black metal. Vero plays with concrete’s imitative capabilities, breathing life into an otherwise plain static material.

For Costa and Reato there are infinite possibilities stemming from one single element: paper for Costa, concrete for Reato. Both artists find endless ways to animate these materials, constantly discovering ways for their art to evolve.

“In my hands, under the scalpel, that white canvas comes to life.”                                                                             

 -- Lis Costa                                                                         

“Concrete creates wonder by its possibilities, challenges by its finesse, and surprises by its apparent lightness.”  

 -- Vero Reato