Cecilia André

Biography

Cecilia André is a Brazilian painter who currently lives and works in New York. She has a BFA and a BAE from FAAP - Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation, in Brazil. Here she studied in art programs at the New York Studio School, Pratt Institute, and School of Visual Arts.

The artist has shown in important museums in Brazil, where she was represented by Adriana Penteado Arte Contemporânea Gallery for 17 years. In the U.S. she has participated in four editions of the NYC Figment Arts Festival and has also shown her work at many venues, including a solo exhibition curated by Kazuko Miyamoto at Gallery OneTwentyEight, in New York. Her latest group show this year was "Through the Rabbit Hole - 2" at Sideshow Gallery, in Williamsburg. Outside the city, she held two solo exhibitions in Saint Louis MO, and integrated a group show in South Orange NJ.

Her work is featured in permanent collections in many different countries.

With an extensive background in art education, Cecilia has taught arts & mythology at PS6 and sustains a long-time studio teaching practice.

Her work is currently on display through October at the Queens Botanical Gardens as one of 6 fellows of AnkhLave Arts Alliance - The Garden Project 2020. Her next project will be a public installation in Long Island City to be displayed in September and October of 2020.

Artist statement

I make large outdoor installations and use color transparencies to cast colored shadows. These pieces invite viewers to bathe themselves in colored lights. To experience my patterns and designs on their skin or clothing. Animals have bathed in my light pieces too. As clouds cover the sun, the colored shadows fade then reignite as the sun comes out bringing curiosity and awareness to the phenomena of daylight and sunshine which surrounds us daily.

In my paintings, I have always stretched my own canvases. It makes me aware of the tensioned grid. I stretch and stitch vinyl and linen pieces, creating topographies on my canvases. The gaps invite the wall behind to participate. I use antique and embroidered bedding linens which highlight the contrast between the perfectly executed designs of traditional craftwork and my coarse, impromptu stitching.

The use of bedding linens introduces the element of sleep and unconscious, which is often associated with the feminine arena, as opposed to logic and rationality. Small sculptural pieces of wood or clay reinforce the surrealistic element in my canvases. By incorporating craft produced by anonymous embroiderer women in Brazil and showcasing it within my work, I celebrate (and desecrate) the craftwork of this past era, which once defined the range of a woman's creativity. As I develop my work, I restore a sense of feminine authorship by embedding craft into art.