Luzia Simons (born 1953) is a Brazilian visual artist, living in Berlin. Simons has exhibited her work internationally, including a solo exhibition at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo in Brazil. Simons is a pioneer in the development of the scanogram—a media technique that combines elements of painting and photography.

Early life and education

Simons was born in 1953 in Quixadá,

Ceará Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...

, Brazil. From 1977 to 1981 she studied history at Université Paris VIII Vincennes. From 1984 to 1986 she studied Fine Arts at the Sorbonne Paris. From 1988 to 2010 she was a lecturer at the Puppet Theater Program, Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Stuttgart, Germany.

Art career

Identity as a sociocultural construction has been central in Simons' works since she left Brazil at the age of 23. Her questions are directed at continuity, vulnerability of the individual and about notions of transference of culture in a globalised world. Her own biography serves as a trigger for the works that encompass photography,

performance A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

, video, sculpture, drawing and recently watercolor and tapestry.

''Stockage'' series (1996-ongoing)

Simons began the Stockage series in 1996 and has been developing new image modalities ever since. The artist uses a specialized high-resolution scanner in a linear mode, without a point of view or central focus, for her compositions with flowers and botanical elements, specially the tulip. These are then produced using a light-beam printing process and mounted in a high-gloss finish, both in smaller and monumental sizes. The images produced present intensely brilliant colors and tremendous acuity. In Simons' work, the flower still life receives a multi-layered cultural and socio-political message. The artist stages the tulips as a sort of homage to Dutch or Flemish

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

s with flowers, sometimes suggesting the tulip mania in seventeenth-century Holland. Out of this history, Simons' tulip becomes a metaphor for globalization, intercultural identity, and cultural nomadism.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*2002, ''Luzia Simons – Face Migration / Sichtvermerke'', Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany *2006, ''Luzia Simons – Stockage'', , Berlin, Germany *2013, ''Luzia Simons – Segmentos'', Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Group exhibitions

*2016, ''Vanitas Rerum'',

Musée des Archives Nationales The Musée des Archives Nationales, formerly known as the Musée de l'Histoire de France (), is a state museum of France, French history operated by the Archives nationales (France), Archives Nationales. The museum features exhibitions drawn from ...

, Hôtel de Soubise, Paris, France *2017, Curitiba Biennial 2017, Curitiba, Brazil *2019, Art Season Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, Centre d'Arts et de Nature, Chaumont-sur-Loire, France *2019, ''B.A.R.O.C.K.'', Caputh Palace, Schwielowsee and ME Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany *2021, ''XXVI Rohkunstbau'', Castle Lieberose, Spreewald, Germany *2021, ''Brasilidade Pós-Modernismo'',

Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil The Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB, in English: ''Bank of Brazil Cultural Center'') is a cultural organization of the Bank of Brazil based in Brazil with centers in Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The CCBB began i ...

, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Collections

Kunsthalle Emden Kunsthalle Emden (Henri and Eske Nannen Foundation, Donation Otto Van de loo) is a German art museum in Emden in East Frisia, Germany. The museum's collections include more than 1,500 works. History In 1986, Henri Nannen (1913–1996) commis ...

, Germany * Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections), Germany * Fonds national d'art contemporain (FRAC), and , France *Pirelli Collection/

São Paulo Museum of Art The São Paulo Museum of Art ( pt, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or ') is an art museum located on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is well known for its headquarters, a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by Lina Bo B ...

, São Paulo, Brazil * New Carlsberg Foundation, Denmark

Publications

Books by Simons

*Simons, Luzia (2003). ''Luzia Simons: Transit''. Patrice Cotensin, Tereza de Arruda, Werner Knoedgen. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. *''Luzia Simons: Scannogramme & Installation; Stockage''. Claudia Emmert, Mitch Cohen, Luzia Simons, Berlin. Exhibition Luzia Simons Stockage 2006, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin: 2006. *Simons, Luzia (2012). ''Luzia Simons''. Matthias Harder. Berlin: Distanz. * Simons, Luzia (2016). ''Installations in situ Archives Nationales, Paris - Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo''. Tereza, de Aruda, Hans Schiler. erlin *Dams, Saskia (2019). ''Luzia Simons , Naturgeschichten''. Günter Dr. Baumann, Museum in Kleihues-Bau Stadt Kornwestheim, Brandes and Mediaservice, Altenriet. *Simons, Luzia. ''Traces''. Berlin: Distanz, 2021. Edited by Tereza de Arruda. .

Books with contributions by Simons

*B.A.R.O.C.K. (2019)'': künstlerische Interventionen in Schloss Caputh und der Wunderkammer der Olbricht Collection, Berlin''. Editors: Samuel Wittwer and Mark Gisbourne. Luzia Simons, Myriam Thyes, Rebecca Stevenson, Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg. Esslingen.

References

External links

*
Literature by and about Luzia Simons in the
German National Library catalogue {{DEFAULTSORT:Simons, Luzia Living people 1953 births 20th-century Brazilian women artists 21st-century Brazilian women artists People from Quixadá