Out of Brazil

We went along last night to the Collyer Bristow Gallery where the opening of their new exhibition, Samuel Guimarães: Out of Brazil was being celebrated with drinks and gentle bossa nova played by Ife Tolentino. The ambassador was amongst the honoured guests, having left his driver double-parked right outside.

Guimarães went native for a decade and the works on display reflect the engagement of a playful sensibility with the Amazonians and their ecosystem. I did wonder though how much of the craft was the artist's own. Was it some anonymous Indian for example that produced the intricately decorated wooden clubs that hung beneath Guimarães's plastic representations of shrunken human heads?

"Is this what they do to clients that don't pay up?" quipped someone that appeared briefly at my side.

The exhibition continues until November 22.