CINCINNATI, OH.- This spring 21c Museum Hotel and the Contemporary Arts Center will unveil Albano Afonso: Self-Portrait as Light. Co-curated by 21c Museum Hotel Museum Director and Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites and CAC Curator Steven Matijco, this will be the Brazilian artist’s first solo exhibition in the U.S. The exhibition features more than 50 works, many of which have not been previously seen in the U.S. Through photographs, installations and perforations, the exhibition explores Afonso’s practice of transforming genres—landscape, still life, and portraiture—into a multi-faceted, multi-media meditation on physical and psychological perception. Self-Portrait as Light will be on view at both museums from March 20 – August 30. The works in the 21c show will then travel to 21c Louisville in the fall of 2015.

Self-Portrait as Light includes an exterior site-specific, commissioned installation on the facades of both 21c and CAC, visually bridging the neighboring venues. The work is a series of digitally manipulated images of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden and references Afonso’s Landscape Crystallization series. These works explore the duality of the visible and invisible through repetition of form, color and imagery; several works from the series will also be on view at 21c.

“21c is committed to supporting visionary artists and sharing their work with the public through innovative initiatives, such as this groundbreaking collaboration with CAC,” said Alice Gray Stites, Museum Director and Chief Curator, 21c Museum Hotel. “Albano Afonso: Self Portrait as Light exemplifies 21c’s mission to collect and exhibit works that reflect the global nature of art today. As Afonso’s work has rarely been seen in the U.S. until now, this exhibition will expand and deepen appreciation for his compelling and vibrant practice.”

The exhibition provides a comprehensive look at the evolution of Afonso’s exploration of light as an essential element that makes painting, photography, film and even vision itself possible. In his earlier self-portraits, Afonso creates a dialogue with art history, his pose and setting reminiscent of great masters while light punches through the perforated surface. The works at 21c will present several bodies of work in which the artist explores the landscape, creating enchanted, enigmatic and layered scenes. The Garden series consists of grouping of photos taken in public parks, botanical gardens and other urban and suburban sites all over the world. The aggregate of images, contrasting light and shadow and shift in scale is occasionally interrupted by squares of color or perforations that render the landscapes as fields of mystery. Works from the Paradises series feature layered and shimmering landscapes as perforated photographs on aluminum, and recall the mirrored surfaces of Afonso’s skeletal forms to link light, nature and the body. Anatomy of Light I, a new addition to the 21c collection that has not been previously seen in the U.S. will fill the property’s entire video lounge. Human body parts covered in mirror or rendered in bronze are suspended alongside crystals and further animated by a projection. Here, the interconnections between light, shadow, and substance are highlighted. In addition to three works from 21c’s collection, the exhibition also includes loans from private collections and Afonso’s gallery, Casa Triângulo.