bio – Patricia Golombek

Patricia Golombek was born in São Paulo, Brazil. She attended “Instituto de Educação Caetano de Campos” and “Faculdade de Belas Artes de São Paulo,” where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, in 1986.

While at university, she studied under Flávio Império, Renina Katz, and Marcelo Nitsche – architecture professors who paid particular attention to the visual arts. The architecture degree also promoted discussions in the fields of Philosophy, Anthropology and Sociology, which would later frame the concepts behind the artist’s body of work. Throughout her years at “Belas Artes,” Patricia gained work experience with graphic design, screen-printing, and photography.
After earning her degree, Patrícia Golombek frequented painter and art critic Ernestina Karman’s studio. She was under her tutelage from 1987 to 1990. It was only after seven years studying that Patricia did her first individual exhibition, in 1994. She considers this the beginning of her career. In 2004, she published her book about her ten years of work.

Throughout the years, Golombek participated in countless art exhibits, not only individual, but also in a group, and both in Brazil and abroad. Some of these include the ARCO Madrid, Art Marché Contemporain, Art NY, Art Miami, Art Paris. Her work has been praised and awarded at mam-the “Museu de Arte Moderna”, and MAC the “Museu de Arte Contemporânea”, both in São Paulo.

In 2011, Golombek published her book “Baixinha de uma figa, não!” which celebrated Brazil in the 1970s and all its peculiarities. In 2014 she curated an exhibit about her high school’s rich history, entitled “Ramos de Azevedo e a Escola Caetano de Campos,” in São Paulo’s historical archives.
In 2016 The University of São Paulo published her book about the school, which was the result of four years of extensive research.

About the Work

Patricia Golombek’s work is an analytical study of architecture; the structures and solutions implemented by architects from around the world. The artist’s own architectural background enables her to translate the language used by architects into visual representations of their creative processes.

By bringing floor plans and initial design elements to the forefront of her work, Golombek rescues architectural details that are often forgotten about once construction is completed. The artist dissects select components of the architect’s work, shows spatial solutions, and often compares projects by different architects in the same piece. The language employed by Golombek is not strictly a copy of the original, but rather a reference to the architect’s ouevre. As such, the artist’s goal is to highlight the vocabulary and specific traits that are attributable to the same architect and found across their body of work.

Golombek uses a plurality of media in her analysis, including paint on canvas, acrylic plates, cement, gold, silver and even copper on rubber. Her utilization of the suspended, overlapping acrylic plates are truly an exercise in perspective, as they portray different architectural solutions relative to the viewer’s own distance from the piece. The artist also develops three-dimensional works using floor plans as her stimulus.

The creative process

In her first individual exhibition, in 1994, at “A Hebraica Galeria,” the artist used different graphic symbols placed in a particular sequence that suggested they were messages one could decipher. From this point onwards, the artist became particularly interested in manuscripts, symbols, and words, which became a theme in her work for years to come.

In 1996, Golombek had her next exhibition at “LR Escritório de Arte”, where we see the first signs of a group of paintings, from diptychs to polyptychs that included the use of graphic symbols created by the artist. This exhibition was strongly inspired by the artist’s time studying architecture, as there were references to specific one-family residences and units developed while at University.

In 1999, her exhibit at “Galeria Mônica Filgueiras” was centered on the deconstruction of images as they were seen, as well as the words that corresponded to them. This concept can be seen in Golombek’s painting entitled “Ônibus”, or “Bus”.

Here, the artist has reinterpreted the word in visual form by imagining its grated floors, patchwork covers and the massage beads that cover the driver’s seat. To the artist, these elements within the bus are what makes it in its entirety, and thus are shown in a new form. All other works in this exhibition followed the same concept.

Golombek’s next exhibition, in 2003, was held in “Galeria Valú Oria.” This time around, the artist furthered her idea of deconstructed images and their reconstruction by raising a new question: can an individual be deceived or manipulated by seeing an image? Could they trust in their gaze to provide them with an absolute truth? To approach this question, the artist, who already made use of unusual materials in previous exhibitions, utilized objects that were camouflaged by different treatments. This gave them new characteristics in terms of their weight in time and value. For instance, a leather string was bathed in iron oxide to turn it into something rustic and heavy, like construction iron; ceramic objects received similar treatment to resemble archaeological findings, but if bathed in gold dust and placed in an acrylic box instead, the same pieces would have a new found status.

The artist’s work then followed a new line of questioning: the power of words. That is, the weight of a word upon uttering it, the consequences of doing so, whether for good or evil, and its perpetuation through time. The artist began to work with letters cut out from Carrara Marble, forming various words. Placed within a cloud of randomized letters, one could make out the word “Beyond.”

Thus, one’s mind wonders: beyond what? Beyond life? After all, marble is often used in one’s grave after they are gone. Could “Beyond” could also refer to how marble has been used by the artists of antiquity, and has survived through the centuries? Does “Beyond” refer to the power of a word, as it reverberates through time, even after it was initially said or written? After all, we must be cautious in choosing our words. How long can the effects of words last, and what are their consequences?

A few years later, Golombek began a series of phrases over mirrors. The letters that made up each popular saying or words of advice were arranged in rows that formed images of different drawings. This continuity seemed strange to the way in which we see things daily, as the observer would only understand what the images were once they combined them with the words that formed them, and consequently their ideas. This word play was purposely constructed on mirrors that would reflect the observer as they interacted with each piece. Was this done in order to taunt, to solicit, to invite for reflection? Further, the pieces only show the colors of the environment in which they are installed, being subject to change depending on its location and the movement in front of it. Could this be an indication that through those words there would also be change, as the same idea would be received and interpreted differently from person to person?

In 2014, twenty years after her first individual exhibition, Patricia Golombek focused on a series of works that related to colors, their names, and their references. How can the same color be called by different names, and be seen in different ways? Why does everything have to be ordered and classified? The precursor to this work can be seen in her piece in the 2008 exhibition “Mulheres Infinitas,” or “Infinite Women,” at “Galeria IQ.” This consisted of patches of dyed hair that are typically used in hair salons, placed in small acrylic boxes to form a type of hair collection. Each hair color had their specific references and corresponding names, which varied from maker to maker within the hair industry. This collection of nuances in dyes within small hair samples were elevated to a higher status by being placed in individual boxes and displayed as art.

People enjoy acquiring things, and collecting them, no matter how strange. The concept behind all of this was our need to give names to everything, and categorize everything in the hopes of understanding the world around us. What is different from our common understanding, from the mundane, causes a sense of estrangement, denial, and even repulsion.

Patricia Golombek’s thirty years of work shows a preoccupation with human thought: its differing set of values and attitudes towards varying situations, as well as the way in which we see things and often misjudge them. It shows the power of emotionally charged words, and our carelessness when choosing them. It shows our perception of time passing, the aging of things, and their gain and loss in value.

In 2015 the artist moves to the city of Miami, Florida and continues the work of colors, this time developing the Miami Blue series, research on various blues .

On the same year she begins a work focused on architecture, studying architects and elements of their works.