Regina Silveira/en

Regina Silveira

Datos generales

Nombre	Regina Silveira
Fecha de nacimiento	1939
Nacionalidad	Brasileña
Ocupación	Artista
Estudios universitarios	Licenciatura en Artes del Instituto de Artes de la Universidad Federal de Rio Grande do Sul
Formación profesional	Diseño en la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Rio Grande do Sul
País de nacimiento	Brazil
Ciudad de nacimiento	Porto Alegre

Regina Silveirais a Brazilian artist who was born in Porto Alegre in 1939. Her work is associated with a multi-dimensional interpretation of reality through the use of light and shade, perspective, optical illusions and visual representation. She has also worked as an educator in several universities in Brazil, from where she advocates the use of new artistic technologies that will enable the development and interpretation of contemporary art.

Biography

Regina Silveira was born in the city of Porto Alegre in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in 1939. She completed her studies for a bachelor’s degree in Art at the Arts Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in 1959, followed some time later by a degree in Design at the Pontifical Catholic University in the same state. During the 1960s she attended a variety of painting and printmaking classes with the Brazilian artists Iberê Camargo, Francisco Stockinger and Marcelo Grassmann, which enabled her to expand her knowledge of art techniques and build the foundations for a new professional approach. From 1964 to 1969 she worked as a professor at the Arts Institute of the university where she received her Art degree. In 1967 she began to study Philosophy and Literature in Madrid, and two years later, in 1969, was invited to teach classes at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico. Between 1973 and 1985 she taught at the Fundación Armando Alvares Penteado in Sao Paulo, and she has been a professor at the School of Communication and Art at the University of Sao Paulo since 1974.

Artistic career

Since her days as a student at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Silveira has been immersed in the field of the arts. Between 1991 and 1994 she was a resident of New York as a result of receiving a scholarship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Fulbright Foundation. In 1995 she was awarded another scholarship focused on an artistic residency from the Fundación Civitella Ranieri. From the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s, the artist produced various sculptures and screen prints with an obvious geometric influence. During her trips to Europe she deepened her knowledge of art history, something that enabled her to broaden her thinking regarding art and relate it with a visual poetry. Upon her return to Brazil she started using non-conventional materials such as metal, wood and plastic. During this period, she produced her first prints with abstract themes and, similarly, in this geometric phase she began to make use of grids and perspective. In various screen prints, she enables a vision of the social reality in a contemporary setting; her 1971 collection of screen prints entitled Laberintos (Labyrinths) encompasses a social vision from the perspective of the masses. The use of photographs of historic and famous places in Brazil in her 1977 series Brazil Today: Belezas Naturais (Natural Beauties) allowed her to employ the offset printing technique to offer a new perspective of Brazilian geography. In the 1970s, her series Topografias (Topographies) made use of a revolver to define the sense of reality, while in the early 1980s her series Anamorfas (Anamorphs) drew on perspective using everyday objects, repurposing and distorting them to give them different sizes and interpretations. In her 1984 series Simulacros (Simulations), she used the shadows of a variety of objects to create a visual distortion. From the beginning of 1990 to the present day, Regina Silveira has utilized interventions in public spaces involving mock-up models and the facades of iconic buildings, streets, avenues, squares or transport stations in Brazil and several countries of Europe and the Americas, fostering a sense of depth and animation while at the same time bringing about the creation of dialogue with the architecture.

Characteristics of her work

The work of Regina Silveira is steeped in the techniques of drawing, printmaking, photography, lighting, and small- and large-scale interventions. She employs social and political parody in order to present personal and collective emotional dimensions, concentrating on the perspective and experience of the spectator. Her artistic research has dealt with the visual image of absence and presence through an artistic and conceptual evocation of Dadaism and Surrealism, with a view to questioning the nature and essence of the senses with regard to perception. This involves the awareness and ideas that may be held by people when defining or interpreting a given object or situation.

In numerous interviews she has cited the Brazilian artist Iberê Camargo and France’s Marcel Duchamp. as influences on her style. From the former she draws on the importance of technique as a means and not as an end, as during the process of creation it allows her to explore myriad styles over and above the result. From Duchamp, renowned for his readymades and installations, Regina Silveira uses the many interpretations of his work, always open to an infinity of readings.

In parallel, her artistic output defines critiquing based on everyday occurrences — positive and negative — that situate the spectator on the basis of thought and reason. Her thematic discourse encompasses the use of allegory, symbolism, recollection and visual identities, always wedded to reality. Similarly, the appearance of her work calls into question the circumstances connected to it, such as the immediate surroundings, ambiguity in the creation of works of art, and how the latter are altered by the spectator.

Featured works

• 1968: Programa
• 1977: Brazil Today
• 1980: Anamorfas (Anamorphs)
• 1983: In Absentia Marcel Duchamp
  • Topo-Sombra
• 1980: Projectio
• 1990: Auditorium II
• 1994: Vórtice (Vortex)
• 2004: Desaparencia
• 2005: Lumen

Works by Regina Silveira in the collections of the Banco de la República

Works by Regina Silveira in the collections of the Banco de la República

Title	Year	Location	Technique	Registration number
Desapariencia (Preparatory drawing)	2001	Reserve	Drawing	AP4763
Desapariencia	2001	Reserve	Installation	AP4761
Desapariencia (Mock-up)	2001	Reserve	Mock-up	AP4762

Timeline

• 1939: Born in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
• 1958: Awarded a bachelor’s degree in Art from the Arts Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.
• 1980: Receives a master’s degree from the University of Sao Paulo, and presents her work Anamorfas at the Museum of Modern Art of the same university.
• 1981: Takes part in the Sao Paulo Biennial.
• 1984: Awarded a doctoral degree from the University of Sao Paulo.
• 1986: Participates in the Havana Biennial.
• 1988: Exhibits her work Projectio at the Fundación Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon.
• 1990: Presents her piece Auditorium II in Porto (Portugal) and India.
• 1999: Exhibits her work Desapariencia at the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center in Santiago, Chile.
• 2005: Presents her work Lumen in the Crystal Palace of the Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid.
• 2007: Presents the exhibition Sombra Luminosa (Luminous Shadow) at the Art Museum of the Banco de la República, Bogotá.
• 2015: Presents the exhibition Metáforas construidas (Constructed metaphors) at the Lacometa Gallery, Bogotá.

See also

• Lumen exhibition, Art Center of the Reina Sofía National Museum, Spain. 2005. [1]

• Study guide No. 59: Sombra Luminosa exhibition: [2]

• Regina Silveira, Amparo Museum, Puebla (Mexico). [3]

• Similarities between Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons. Archdaily. [4]

Bibliography

• De Morales, Angélica. (Ed.). (1996). Regina Silveira. Cartografía da sombra (Cartography of shade). Sao Paulo: University of Sao Paulo.

• Montejo Navas, Adolfo. (2002). Regina Silveira, o cuando las sombras hablan (Regina Silveira, or when the shadows speak). Lápiz International Art Magazine. (182), p.52-61.

• Reina Sofía National Museum Art Center. (2005). Luz Lumen (Lumen Light). Regina Silveira. Madrid: Reina Sofía National Museum Art Center.

Art collection of the Banco de la República

• Visit the artwork of Regina Silveira inColección de arte
• Visit the artwork of Regina Silveira in Colección de arte
• Visit the artwork of Regina Silveira in Colección de arte

Credits

1.Research and text: Alejandro Lozano, mediator of the museums and collections of the Banco de la República, for Banrepcultural

2.Text revision and editing: Inti Camila Romero Estrada and Diana Salas, Public and Educational Services Department, Art and Other Collections Unit (UAOC).

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