Turmalinas No Céu

David B. Smith Gallery is pleased to welcome back Brazilian painter Bruno Novelli for his second solo exhibition, Turmalinas No Céu. Spanning the main gallery and project room, Novelli expands on his visual language defined by luscious colors, tropical imagery, and collage-like layered compositions. Roughly translating to “tourmaline sky,” Turmalinas No Céu explores what Novelli terms a “tropical delirium,” a type of aesthetic utopia where imagery imbued with personal meaning materializes into paradisiac landscapes.

Exotic and yet familiarly primal, viewers can feel the pulse of Novelli’s nocturnal jungle scenes. Howler monkeys peer out from behind mountains of sliced agate, while glowing moons coax tropical flowers to bloom. Alongside scenes of fantastical rainforest flora, fauna, and celestial bodies, are smaller canvases that Novelli describes as invitations for introspective experience. In contrast to the spindly jungle scenes of the larger canvases, many of these smaller scale works feature hazy color gradients and slices of Brazilian gemstones sprinkled over the surface, delivering a powerful visual punch.

In full vivid color, overgrown with phosphorescent vegetation, laden with slices of watermelon tourmaline ripe enough to eat, Bruno Novelli’s bricolage of tropical visions travels across the equator and back again in Turmalinas No Céu.