Coming up at XVA Gallery – ‘Rooted in Drawing’, an exhibition featuring the works of Elizabeth Dorazio
Join us from October 21st – November 30th, 2023 to experience the fusion of nature and art at Elizabeth
Dorazio’s ‘Rooted in Drawing’ exhibition, where intricate pyrographed wooden collages meet handmade
woolen tapestries.
Curatorial statement:
Nature is the raw material of Elizabeth Dorazio, an artist who adopted drawing as a means of expression. Handmade paper, reused wood, textile fibers serve as a support for images that the artist composes from a vast repertoire collected from scientific publications and the internet, images of manifestations from nature – observable or intelligible.
The artist operates according to a logic that presupposes the multiple and the multidimensional. This enables her to reconcile disparate elements such as the structure of a microorganism or the arrangement of a constellation. A piece of work by Elizabeth Dorazio may condense images of human organs, singlecelled bodies, ecosystems, galaxies and fossils, or traces of life forms that replicate in DNA chains. In Rooted In Drawing, Dorazio presents new work from the series to which she has dedicated herself over recent years. From the I Went on a Trip_ series, it presents tapestries produced in collaboration with FBMI artisans based on original collages that also generated the photographs displayed here. In Elizabeth Dorazio’s production, collage ascends from the procedure of drawing by cutting out images with scissors, a procedure adopted in compositions that evoke marine life. Panels from the On Nature series are also displayed, with pyrographed designs on fragments of discarded wood from furniture or decommissioned shipping vessels
Magnólia Costa – Curator
About the artist:
Elizabeth Dorazio lives and works in the United Arab Emirates and Brazil with an art practice That deploys drawing, collage, woodwork and installation to explore the mysteries
of human relations to nature and the cosmos. Her work often includes collaboration with traditional arts practitioners from around the world. Dorazio studied visual arts at the
Fundação Escola Guignard BH in Brazil. She subsequently trained in ancient Italian art techniques at the Istituto per l’Arte e il Restauro, Florence, with additional training at the Abendschule, Städelschule in Germany. Dorazio’s practice centers on mixed-media works and installations. To skim through her myriad bodies of works is to glimpse a fascination with instability, shifting surfaces, the cosmic, the organic, the cellular, skin. While she remains faithful to a certain technical classicism (drawing, etching, the use of egg
tempera), she also disrupts through material (x-ray fragments, chair caning) and scale. Upstream, her works are process-driven; on reception, they seem urgent and interactive. She has exercised her skills as a curator in the exhibitions Existenzielle Korrespondenzen (Frankfurt am Main/São Paulo, 2016), Blue Connection (Frankfurt am Main/São Paulo/Sorocaba, 2010-11) and Schweizer 9 (Frankfurt am Main, 2008).
Past solo and group exhibitions include:
2023 Louvre Abu Dhabi, UAE; 2022 Dan Galeria, SP, Brazil; Warehouse421 Abu Dhabi, UAE; 2016 MACS, Sorocaba, Brazil; 2016 Ausstellungshalle, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; 2013 Kunstverein Familie Montez, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; 1998 Capela do Morumbi, SP, Brazil; 1998 Memorial da America Latina, SP, Brazil; 1996 CCSP, SP, Brazil; 1988 Paço das Artes, SP, Brazil; 1987 MASP, SP, Brazil.
About XVA Gallery
XVA Gallery is one of the leading galleries in the Middle East that specializes in contemporary art from the Arab world, Iran, and the Subcontinent. Exhibitions focus on works by the region’s foremost artists as well as those emerging onto the scene. The gallery’s artists express their different cultural identities and perspectives while challenging the viewer to drop prejudices and borders. XVA Gallery and XVA Art Hotel are located in Dubai’s heritage district, now called Al Fahidi Historical Neighborhood. XVA founded and organized the Bastakiya Art Fair from 2007- 2010 as part of its commitment to raising the profile of contemporary art practice in Dubai.