Ricardo Alcaide: Brightest Light
Mindy Solomon is pleased to present Venezuelan born; Antwerp based artist Ricardo Alcaide in his first solo exhibition in the gallery.
There is a quiet tension in Ricardo Alcaide鈥檚 work鈥攁n insistence that what we often overlook has weight, memory, and meaning. In Brightest Light, he presents a new body of work that distills years of lived experience into a material language that is both ordered and unruly.
Alcaide鈥檚 compositions begin with the logic of construction: bars of aluminum or MDF, aligned with near-clinical precision, marked by repetition and control. But he never lets them settle. Paint spills beyond the lines, edges are scuffed or left raw, and bricks are inserted where they can鈥檛 perform their function. In works such as Silence and Visible, the works appear sharp and clean from the front, even minimalist. But take a step to the side, and their skin peels back. Imperfection reveals itself as a method. Mess becomes the message.
For the first time, Alcaide turns to aluminum鈥攁 reflective, industrial material he had long resisted. In these new wall-mounted reliefs, the aluminum鈥檚 smoothness contrasts sharply with the rawness of embedded bricks and the rough brushwork along the edges. These aren鈥檛 just aesthetic choices but acts of resistance: against polish, against pretense. If the surface remains smooth, it does so, bearing inner scars.
In one of his recent works, Alcaide found himself unexpectedly echoing Venezuelan modernist Alejandro Otero. Like Otero鈥檚 Colorhythm series, his vertical compositions pulse with rhythm and modularity. But what Otero sought in purity and optical harmony, Alcaide interrupts with bricks and intentional sloppiness. His is not a celebration of order but a slow unraveling of it. What stays is tactile and restless, a structure marked by the evidence of its own making.
The brick, recurring throughout the exhibition, first entered Alcaide鈥檚 vocabulary while living in S茫o Paulo. There, he encountered bricks everywhere throughout his walks in the mega-metropolis鈥攕tacked on sidewalks, tucked into windows, and left abandoned on street corners. To him, they became a symbol of the city鈥檚 informal architecture, its unfinished edges, and its capacity to hold weight without fanfare. Alongside MDF鈥攁 material he came to know intimately while working as a handyman in London鈥攖he brick embodies Alcaide鈥檚 ongoing commitment to what is often dismissed or covered up. Both are materials that usually live behind the wall. Here, he gives them visibility鈥攆oregrounding their presence rather than concealing it. In this, Alcaide鈥檚 impulse recalls H茅lio Oiticica鈥檚 embrace of the marginal as a social position and a creative force. The use of brick, MDF, and other industrial materials is not simply to represent the everyday but to create from it.
Despite the material heft of aluminum and brick, lightness permeates the exhibition鈥攃onceptually and chromatically. The show鈥檚 title and orientation take inspiration from the sun, light, and Alcaide鈥檚 emotional response to Miami鈥檚 brightness. A sequence Alcaide calls his 鈥渞ainbow of chaos鈥� derived from a graffiti he once saw in downtown Miami that read, 鈥淲e live in the rainbow of chaos.鈥� These personalized rainbows evoke joy and spiritual charge layered over the grid鈥檚 rigidity. At once intuitive and formal, this palette reflects Alcaide鈥檚 desire to channel sensation through geometry鈥攖ranslating emotional landscapes into structural terms.
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Mindy Solomon is pleased to present Venezuelan born; Antwerp based artist Ricardo Alcaide in his first solo exhibition in the gallery.
There is a quiet tension in Ricardo Alcaide鈥檚 work鈥攁n insistence that what we often overlook has weight, memory, and meaning. In Brightest Light, he presents a new body of work that distills years of lived experience into a material language that is both ordered and unruly.
Alcaide鈥檚 compositions begin with the logic of construction: bars of aluminum or MDF, aligned with near-clinical precision, marked by repetition and control. But he never lets them settle. Paint spills beyond the lines, edges are scuffed or left raw, and bricks are inserted where they can鈥檛 perform their function. In works such as Silence and Visible, the works appear sharp and clean from the front, even minimalist. But take a step to the side, and their skin peels back. Imperfection reveals itself as a method. Mess becomes the message.
For the first time, Alcaide turns to aluminum鈥攁 reflective, industrial material he had long resisted. In these new wall-mounted reliefs, the aluminum鈥檚 smoothness contrasts sharply with the rawness of embedded bricks and the rough brushwork along the edges. These aren鈥檛 just aesthetic choices but acts of resistance: against polish, against pretense. If the surface remains smooth, it does so, bearing inner scars.
In one of his recent works, Alcaide found himself unexpectedly echoing Venezuelan modernist Alejandro Otero. Like Otero鈥檚 Colorhythm series, his vertical compositions pulse with rhythm and modularity. But what Otero sought in purity and optical harmony, Alcaide interrupts with bricks and intentional sloppiness. His is not a celebration of order but a slow unraveling of it. What stays is tactile and restless, a structure marked by the evidence of its own making.
The brick, recurring throughout the exhibition, first entered Alcaide鈥檚 vocabulary while living in S茫o Paulo. There, he encountered bricks everywhere throughout his walks in the mega-metropolis鈥攕tacked on sidewalks, tucked into windows, and left abandoned on street corners. To him, they became a symbol of the city鈥檚 informal architecture, its unfinished edges, and its capacity to hold weight without fanfare. Alongside MDF鈥攁 material he came to know intimately while working as a handyman in London鈥攖he brick embodies Alcaide鈥檚 ongoing commitment to what is often dismissed or covered up. Both are materials that usually live behind the wall. Here, he gives them visibility鈥攆oregrounding their presence rather than concealing it. In this, Alcaide鈥檚 impulse recalls H茅lio Oiticica鈥檚 embrace of the marginal as a social position and a creative force. The use of brick, MDF, and other industrial materials is not simply to represent the everyday but to create from it.
Despite the material heft of aluminum and brick, lightness permeates the exhibition鈥攃onceptually and chromatically. The show鈥檚 title and orientation take inspiration from the sun, light, and Alcaide鈥檚 emotional response to Miami鈥檚 brightness. A sequence Alcaide calls his 鈥渞ainbow of chaos鈥� derived from a graffiti he once saw in downtown Miami that read, 鈥淲e live in the rainbow of chaos.鈥� These personalized rainbows evoke joy and spiritual charge layered over the grid鈥檚 rigidity. At once intuitive and formal, this palette reflects Alcaide鈥檚 desire to channel sensation through geometry鈥攖ranslating emotional landscapes into structural terms.
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