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KITSCH GLITZ SERIES

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Kitsch Glitz is rooted in the Pop movement. Artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns transformed targets and everyday objects into art. It began with a readymade gesture: a discarded object that refused its original form and became something else entirely.

Untitled (2023) is that origin. Handle with care (2023) extended the gesture, investigating what we carry with care and what we allow to break.

In Approaching my shadow (2023), the anatomical heart made its first appearance: a popular symbol stripped of its original context and reloaded with new meaning, built into mirrors of human-scale proportions. The sculpture illuminates as the observer approaches its dark side. Light and shadow entered the series as active forces.

I see you (2023) brought light through a photograph of an abandoned house in Kulusuk, Greenland, layered with a family photograph. The shadow of a domestic space became a portal. Going home (2023) and Holding the space (2023) deepened this vocabulary: the mailbox as the threshold between the private and the shared, a pandemic painting finding light through a repurposed industrial part that became a procession candle holder. In Collecting the pieces (2023), industrial parts from a garage dump became an anatomical heart layered across sheets of glass.

Connecting the dots (2023) encases the family photograph in an oversized frame of bubble wrap painted in gold: the most disposable of materials made baroque, opulent, indistinguishable from precious. A combine in the tradition of Rauschenberg. The kitsch and the glitz, inseparable.

With Daily bread (2023), As we forgive (2023), and Blessed fruit (2023), resin entered as the binding material: transparent, weight-bearing, allowing light through. The anatomical heart as the seat of feeling, the house as the self, the hand as the agent of care, the mailbox as the threshold between the private and the shared: popular symbols assembled around sources of illumination in a territory where spirit, nature, culture, and consumption intertwine.

We Are All Superheroes I, II, III & IV (2023) returns to the anatomical heart, drawn in graphite and stamping on hand-made paper mounted over wood burnt by the artist on a bbq grill, suspended on steel cable. Four open hearts. What does it cost to remain open? What does it mean to be vulnerable in a world that rewards performance? The heart on burnt wood does not answer. It asks.

Anesthesia (2023) is where the series reaches its most radical point. An installation of hand-sculpted copper hearts treated with red wine, sweat, holy water, polluted water from the Rio Pinheiros in São Paulo, Rivotril, semen, and saliva. At the end of the row, a light bulb. Embedding the substances of contemporary life into the material is itself a Pop gesture: the conviction that what we consume, secrete, pray with, and pollute is repurposed as art.

Anesthesia, 2023

Paula Marcondes | Anesthesia | Kitsch Glitz Series | Brazil 2023 | Fluorescent light bulb, copper pipe sculpted by hand treated with red wine, sweat, polluted water from Pinheiros River in São Paulo, holy water, Rivotril, semen, saliva | 79” X 59” X 394” | 200cm x 150cm x 1000cm

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Anestesia, 2023 | Installed off-level

| Galeria Dezoito | SP

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Video of the installation

We are all superheroes, 2023

Paula Marcondes | We are all superheroes I, II, III & IV I | Kitsch Glitz Series  | Brazil, 2023 | Drawings of open anatomical hearts using graphite and stamping on hand-made paper over wood burnt by the artist and bbq grill, steel cable | 22” x 19” | 56cm x 47cm

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Blessed fruit, 2023

Paula Marcondes | Blessed fruit | Kitsch Glitz Series | Brazil, 2023 | Copper, soil from São Paulo, roots from Montana, acrylic paint, resin and light on metal structure | 85" x 55" x 8" | 215cm x 140cm x 20cm | 50 kg

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As we forgive, 2023

Paula Marcondes | As we forgive | Kitsch Glitz Series | Brazil, 2023 | Circuit breakers found in dumpster, acrylic paint, spray, resin and light on metal structure | 50" x 40" x 8" | 130cm x 100cm x 20cm | 30 kg

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Daily bread, 2023

Paula Marcondes | Daily bread | Kitsch Glitz Series | Brazil, 2023 | Brazilian "marmita" dish (polysterene lunch box), rice, beans, acrylic paint, spray, resin and light on metal structure | 50" x 40" x 8" | 130cm x 100cm x 20cm | 30 kg

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Connecting the dots, 2023

Paula Marcondes | Connecting the dots Kitsch Glitz Series | Brazil, 2023 | Acrylic, spray, collage on linen | 65” x 53” | 165cm x135cm

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Collecting the pieces, 2023

Paula Marcondes | Collecting the pieces | Kitsch Glitz Series | Brazil, 2023 | Glass, metal and wood | 78” x 31” x 31” | 198cm x 80cm x 80cm | 35 kg

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Holding the space, 2023

Paula Marcondes | Holding the space | Kitsch Glitz Series | Brazil, 2023 | Reused scrap materials, acrylic on canvas, procession candle | 47” x 31” x 12” | 120cm x 80cm x 30cm

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Detail

Going home, 2023

Paula Marcondes | Going home | Kitsch Glitz Series | Installation | Brazil 2023 | Fluorescent light bulb, artist's photograph printed on glass, 300 hand sculpted rusty wire anatomical heart sculptures, stainless steel cables |  200 cm x 5000 cm x 5000 cm |  79”x 2000” x 2000”

Photograph: Paula Marcondes | Mailboxes | Montana 2022 | Inkjet on glass

Sculptures: Paula Marcondes | Going home II - CCC | Brazil 2023 | Hand sculpted rusty metal wire

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Detail of installation

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Sculpture Going home II part of the installation 

 I see you, 2023

Paula Marcondes | I see you | Kitsch Glitz Series | Photo overlay, paint, light | Brazil, 2023 | 47” x 32” | 120cm x 80cm 

1. Photograph: Paula Marcondes de Souza | House in Kulusuk | Inkjet on glass

2. Photograph: Artist's family photo | Inkjet on foam board 

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Approaching my shadow, 2023

Paula Marcondes | Approaching my shadow | Kitsch Glitz Series | Brazil, 2023 | Mirror, wood, reused scrap metal, light sensor, light | 67” x 55” x 55” | 170cm x 140cm x 140cm | 40 kg

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Sketch

Handle with care, 2023

Paula Marcondes | Handle with care | Kitsch Glitz Series | Brazil 2023 | Materials from the artist’s studio and artist's family, acrylic paint, collage, steel cable, chicken coop wire mash | 59” x 55” x 12” | 150cm x 140cm x 30cm

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Untitled,  2023

Paula Marcondes | Untitled | Brazil, 2023 | Clothes hanger from the late artist's mother, paint | 39" x 47" x 39" | 100cm x 120cm x 100cm  

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