LE BAL presents the photographic work of the first period (1968-1992) of the Brazilian artist Miguel Rio Branco, a major figure of contemporary art in his country, known worldwide for his installations and multimedia works.
Miguel Rio Branco, a leading figure in Brazilian contemporary art, is a multi-faceted artist. At the age of twenty, he went to study photography in New York, where the city’s bubbling excitement nourished his poetic imaginings and his early canvases. He lived in the poorer areas of the Lower East Side, the East Village and the Bowery, where all the influences came together. There he befriended his compatriot Helio Oiticica, open to the most radical experiments. He was also in close contact with the innovations of an artist born and bred in the neighborhood, Gordon Matta Clark, who made “building cuts” in rundown apartment blocks.
