Small Fires

2012

Brazilian, born 1968

Tonico Lemos Auad's ephemeral installations oscillate between the mundane and the magical. In making Small Fires, the artist scratched away the labels on more than eighty tin cans, leaving behind a single image, such as a lemon, a rooster, or floral motifs that float on a monochromatic silver backdrop. The objects read simultaneously as nonprecious—a group of empty cans, ordinary pieces of refuse—and as unique works, with their commercial markings reduced to one enigmatic icon. Arranged as a group, they form a strange and provisional skyline in miniature.

Scratched tin cans in 85 parts

variable

Gift of Janice Niemi and Dennis Braddock

2017.27

Provenance: The artist; [CRG Gallery, New York]; purchased by Dennis Braddock and Janice Niemi, Seattle, Washington, September 22, 2012

Photo: Mark Woods

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, CRG Gallery, Tonico Lemos Auad: Figa, May 4-June 22, 2012

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Everyday Poetics, Nov. 18, 2017-June 18, 2018. Brochure text by Catharina Manchanda. No cat. no.

Published ReferencesNichols, Matthew. “Tonico Lemos Auad,” in Art in America, Sept. 19, 2012.

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