Untitled Art Houston 2026
ABC-ARTE proposes a presentation centered on a dialogue between Brazilian painter Antonio Kuschnir (b. 2001) and Austrian-Italian artist Jorrit Tornquist (b. 1938), complemented by two hyperrealistic ceramic sculptures by Bertozzi & Casoni. Though belonging to different generations and artistic traditions, the three practices converge around a shared investigation into perception and the way images construct our experience of reality. The booth brings together painting, color, and sculpture to explore how representation can simultaneously reveal and deceive.
Antonio Kuschnir’s recent paintings explore what might be described as an uncertain Arcadia: landscapes that echo the European pastoral tradition while subtly destabilizing it. His scenes are populated by resting figures, wandering characters, and symbolic presences within lush environments that initially appear idyllic. Yet beneath this calm surface lies a latent tension—dragons emerge from foliage, serpents move quietly through the landscape, and moments of stillness gradually give way to transformation or conflict. Kuschnir’s paintings unfold like fragments of an open narrative, where storytelling coexists with richly patterned surfaces that often push the image toward ornament and abstraction.
Placed in dialogue with these works are paintings and chromatic studies by Jorrit Tornquist, a pioneering figure in European color theory whose practice has, since the 1960s, investigated the perceptual and spatial dynamics of color. Tornquist’s works reduce painting to the interaction of hue, light, and optical perception, creating subtle chromatic environments where minimal shifts in color generate powerful spatial and atmospheric effects.
Completing the presentation are two ceramic sculptures by Bertozzi & Casoni. Renowned for transforming ceramic into an astonishingly lifelike medium, their works blur the boundary between reality and illusion, combining technical virtuosity with reflections on consumer culture, transience, and materiality. Within the booth, the sculptures act as physical counterparts to the paintings: objects that appear uncannily real while constantly questioning the reliability of vision.
Together, Kuschnir, Tornquist, and Bertozzi & Casoni propose three distinct yet complementary approaches to representation. Through narrative, color, and hyperrealistic sculpture, the presentation invites viewers to reflect on painting not simply as a medium, but as a way of constructing perception itself.
