preview: henrique oliveira 'tapumes' at rice gallery, houston, texas

preview: henrique oliveira ‘tapumes’ at rice gallery, houston, texas ‘tapumes’, 2006 at centro de artes visuais funarte, rio de janeiro images © henrique oliveira

brazilian artist henrique oliveira’s first solo exhibition in the united states, will open at rice art gallery, houston, texas on march 26, 2009. oliveira uses salvaged wood collected from the streets of são paulo to create massive scale, site-specific installations with dense layers that twist, curve, bend, and split. oliveira uses tapumes, which in portugese can mean fencing, boarding, or enclosure, as a title for many of his large-scale installations. the term makes reference to the temporary wooden construction fences seen throughout the city of são paulo where oliveira lives.

‘tapumes’, 2006

‘tapumes’, 2006

detail of ‘tapumes’, 2006

detail of ‘tapumes’, 2006

detail of ‘tapumes’, 2006

whirlwind for turner, 2007 11th english cultural festival, british council, são paulo

whirlwind for turner, 2007

henrique oliveira was born in ourinhos, brazil in 1973. he received a BFA in painting in 2004 and a masters in visual poetics in 2007 from the university of são paulo, brazil. he lives and works in são paulo.