Sikkema Jenkins & Co. is pleased to present "Dry River," a solo exhibition of recent work by Luiz Zerbini, on view September 7 through October 15. An opening reception will be held at the gallery on Wednesday, September 7 from 6-8 PM. Nature, history, and the relationship between humans and the land foreground the visual identity of Luiz Zerbini’s artistic practice. Integrating both geometric and organic forms, his work draws upon the natural and urban imagery of his native Brazil. Lush, undulating vegetation and earthen textures meet mosaic-like facades and linear architectural constructions, bringing these ecologies into a shared landscape. The large-scale painting "Dry River" (2022), after which the exhibition is named, exemplifies his use of the grid composition as the structure of an imagined landscape of plants, trees, leaves, and textural fields. "Dry River" follows Zerbini’s recent major institutional exhibition, "The Same Story is Never the Same," at Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) in Spring 2022. In it, Zerbini critically reinterprets several iconic scenes within the genre of Brazilian historical painting to represent the violent legacies of European colonization and its lasting oppression of Indigenous populations and the environment. Two works, the painting "Rio das mortes" (2021) and the table installation "Jewels of the forest," were originally presented at MASP and are included in "Dry River." As one of Zerbini’s “history” paintings, "Rio das mortes" interrogates the enduring system of ecological violence enacted by illegal gold mining operations upon the Indigenous Yanomami people of Northern Brazil. "Jewels of the forest" brings forth material traces of the forest into the gallery space, displaying an array of seeds, shells, rocks, and leaves as reclaimed treasures held in jewelry cases. Alongside these canvas paintings will be shown a series of new monotypes, also entitled "Dry River," and the recent short film "Xamãpacurá." Both works imagine the botanical world as fantastical realms, vibrant and otherworldly in their ecological diversity. Image: Luiz Zerbini, "Dry River," 2022, acrylic on canvas #LuizZerbini #SikkemaJenkins