Erika Malzoni
Infected

Fredric Snitzer Gallery is pleased to present Infected, Erika Malzoni’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Included in this exhibition is a large sculptural installation alongside a series of ceramics chronicling a recent 40 day period the artist spent in Miami. Erika Malzoni’s multidisciplinary approach to her artistic practice often results in object based works that include ready-made assemblages, sculptures, and installations. Her works stem from an interest in giving prominence to ordinary, discarded materials, questioning how an object acquires its value, conventions, and transience. With an attentive and generous gaze, Malzoni collects and resignifies these leftovers of daily life transpiring something of little worth into aesthetic value.

The ceramics inaugurate a more experimental and expressive branch of her work, and appear in shapes that resemble trees and tongues, seeking to preserve the primary gesture of chiseling clay: they are smashed, kneaded, pressed, twisted, and stretched. Such abundant marks left by the artist on the pieces manifest the restlessness in determining their contours, which come up from the contact with the material rather than ensuing from a previous plan. Erika's ceramics are unruly and do not submit to the technical process: incidents are incorporated and even desired, such as fractures that can occur during the firing process. In addition, her ceramic pieces are often painted with unusual materials other than glazes (i.e. spray paint). Resembling other areas of her research, Erika's ceramics indicate her generosity with the material - a reflection on what is easily disposable when not regarded as ideal.

Erika Malzoni was born in Itapetininga, Brazil in 1966. She currently lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. Malzoni’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout Brazil and Portugal. In 2018, Erika was the recipient of the Acquisition prize at the XX Bienal de Cerveira in Portugal.