'Mineral' is a group of sculptures that were made individually but are kept together as one family. Each piece in the group represents a geode or a gemstone. The role of geodes in nature seems to be purely aesthetic, as their shape and colour are their most regarded features. By using them to form this artwork Verzutti is making sculpture out of sculptures.
Often the artist quotes known works such as the Venus of Willendorf and at other times finds herself using nature itself as a found object. Verzutti started creating geode sculptures by making moulds from the natural stones, similar to what she has done with fruits and vegetables in other works. She then made shapes directly in clay, not depending on the real stones to cast from but inventing her own rules to create a different nature.
The artist always tries to find fertility in her practice, to have the feeling that the work will naturally grow from a small molecule of decision. With a simple repeated gesture of hitting fresh clay with her fingertips, Verzutti created a particular texture for the outside of the gemstones. In the final stages of sculpting the artist uses paint or pigmented wax, a complex yet enjoyable process. In 'MINERAL', she describes "I seized an opportunity to exercise paint arbitrarily, motivated by the variety found in natural geodes' colours and styles". With this group of painted sculptures Verzutti painted some stones with colour fields mimicking Rothkos.
Verzutti perceives sculpture today as something that can exist in domestic and public spaces but also in phone screens of embedded in human gestures; "I believe sculpture does not need much order or space to pulsate. I made one of my first bronzes, Galapagos, an iridescent blue, birdlike arrangement of tropical fruits, in 2007. A friend bought it and placed it by the window in his kitchen on his farm. He then paired it with a dwarf statue that matched much of my sculpture’s size, temperature, and colour. I considered that a happy ending for an art object, finding its profane companion for life".
Erika Verzutti (b.1971, Brazil )
Mineral, 2013
WILSON TARBOX, Stone Fruit and Paper Insects: Erika Verzutti’s Play with the Soft and the Hard
(Magazine), March 7, 2019
Centre Pompidou, Video, Erika Verzutti, MUTATIONS / CRÉATIONS 3, Centre Pompidou
Centre Pompidou (Video), 2019
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Dorothée Dupuis, Art Basel Miami Beach Art Week 2015
Terremoto (Online), December 2015
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Scout MacEachron, Spilled Bananas, Split Blades, and Books with Bullets: Eclectic Offerings at Mana Miami
Hyperallergic (Online), December 2015
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Frank Exposito , Erika Verzutti
Artforum (Online), 18 July 2014
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Erika Verzutti
Editora Cobogó (Book), 2013
Edgardo Aragon
—Efectos de Familia
2007-2009Eduardo Basualdo
—Split Knife/ Infinito
2012Eduardo Basualdo
—Untitled (after Fontana)
2012Eduardo Basualdo
—Untitled (2012)
2012Eduardo Basualdo
—Damage is Done (El daño está hecho)
2011Eduardo Basualdo
—Sky
2013Diego Bianchi
—Life with no Capitalisim
2011Carlito Carvalhosa
—Untitled
2007Leda Catunda
—Cerebro
2008Leda Catunda
—Siameses
1998Marcos Chaves
—Untitled / Series "Holes"
2008Marcos Chaves
—Untitled / Series "Holes"
2008Marcos Chaves
—Untitled / Series "Holes"
2008Adriano Costa
—6 Monuments (Mão, Gala, Sahara, Human Rights, Israel, Waikiki)
2012Adriano Costa
—Banhista - Das G.O.D Captivator
2013Nicola Costantino
—‘Winged Nicola’ inspired by Bacon
2010Nicola Costantino
—Vanity
2011Nicola Costantino
—Still Life/The Dinner
2008Nicola Costantino
—After Berni
2008Abraham Cruzvillegas
—Autorretrato ciego regresando a la cordura entre gritos y sombrerazos en la plaza Taksim
2013Caetano De Almeida
—Igapó
2010Iran Do Espirito Santo
—Platform 1
2008Matías Duville
—Noche independencia
2011Os Gemeos
—Sem Titulo
2008-2010Sebastian Gordin
—Avon Fantasy Reader, The Stripping of the Death
2011Carlos Huffmann
—“Hope for the Future”
2011Carlos Huffmann
—Untitled
2006-2013Gabriel Kuri
—Waiting Spent (07)
2013Sze Tsung Leong
—Looking towards Chongqing
2003Laura Lima
—Untitled
2014Mateo López
—Tablero
2014Mateo López
—Caja Negra
2012Los Carpinteros
—Altoparlante Solimar
2008Jorge Macchi
—Extinction
2010Rodrigo Matheus
—No Background
2013Jorge Mayet
—Untitled
2011Moris (Israel Meza Moreno)
—Macho Alfa (Alpha male)
2012Moris (Israel Meza Moreno)
—Las Ratas Muertas No Abren La Boca
2014Moris (Israel Meza Moreno)
—No quieras cazar al cazador
2013Moris (Israel Meza Moreno)
—Sin Titulo (pegamento)
2016Moris (Israel Meza Moreno)
—Shot Into The Air 2
Marcelo Moscheta
—Anti-Gravitational Magnetic Pole 62 Stones
2009Vik Muniz
—Jackie (from Pictures of Diamond)
2005Vik Muniz
—After Barry Le Va, 1969 (from Pictures of Dust)
2000Lavar Munroe
—Boy Predator Boy Prey
2012Lavar Munroe
—Untitled
2014Paulo Nazareth
—Banana Market/ Art Market
2011Jorge Pedro Nuñez
—Untitled (Smoked Walls)
2013Damian Ortega
—Estructuras de la casualidad V
2009Damian Ortega
—Falla
2014Bernardo Ortiz
—Sin Titulo
2014Bernardo Ortiz
—Sin Titulo
2014Rodolpho Parigi
—Night Clubbing
2011Nicolas Paris
—History of expandable parts / Diagram of the interaction
2011José Patrício
—Collection 2
2005Pedro Reyes
—Cuernófono
2013Pedro Reyes
—Shakers y zampoña
2013Pedro Reyes
—Navaja Suiza [Swiss Army Knife] X
2014Nicolas Robbio
—Untitled
2014Nicolas Robbio
—Untitled
2014Thiago Rocha Pitta
—Tres Nuvens De Lama (three mud clouds)
2011Regina Silveira
—Botão
2008Regina Silveira
—Punctum
2010Rodrigo Torres
—Contagalo
2011Rodrigo Torres
—Aster
2011Rodrigo Torres
—Uns Trocodos
2011Delson Uchoa
—Trinta e Quatro de Abril
2010Adrian Villar Rojas
—Sick of Goodbyes
2011Adrian Villar Rojas
—Before My Birth 3
2012Adrian Villar Rojas
—Todo lo que vos sos yo no, (Everything you are, I am not)
2008Adrian Villar Rojas
—From the series "Lo que el fuego me trajo" (What fire has brought to me)
2008Laura Vinci
—Lux Lisboa
2010
Marina Abramovic
—Rhythm 0
1974Rina Banerjee
—With breath Taking Consumption Her Commerce Ate While She Was Being Eaten
2008Eduardo Basualdo
—Sky
2013Sheba Chhachhi
—Neelkanth: Poison/Nectar
2000-2008Adriano Costa
—6 Monuments (Mão, Gala, Sahara, Human Rights, Israel, Waikiki)
2012Vibha Galhotra
—Works in Progress
2008Weigang Gao
—Don’t Cry to Me
2011Os Gemeos
—Sem Titulo
2008-2010Guo Hongwei, Li Shurui, Yang Xinguang
—Rural Poetics
2015Shilpa Gupta
—I Keep Falling At You
2010An He
—Yoshiyoka Miho
2012Geraldine Javier
—Hysteria
2011Li Jinghu
—Rainbow
2009Li Jinghu
—Stone Feces
2006Li Jinghu
—Counting Stars
2005Gabriel Kuri
—Waiting Spent (07)
2013Fang Lijun
—2005.1.10
2005Mateo López
—Caja Negra
2012Ohad Meromi
—Screen and Totem
2001Moris (Israel Meza Moreno)
—Macho Alfa (Alpha male)
2012Marcelo Moscheta
—Anti-Gravitational Magnetic Pole 62 Stones
2009Paulo Nazareth
—Banana Market/ Art Market
2011Donna Ong
—In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
2010Nicolas Paris
—History of expandable parts / Diagram of the interaction
2011Rashid Rana
—Desperately Seeking Paradise II
2011Duhirwe Rushemeza
—Return of the Makaned
2013Liu Shiyuan
—From “Happiness” to “Whatever”
2015Eliezer Sonnenschein
—Untitled
2010Manit Sriwanichpoom
—Pink Men vs. Pink Buddha
2007Adrian Villar Rojas
—Before My Birth 3
2012Laura Vinci
—Lux Lisboa
2010Ai WeiWei
—Forever
2003Haegue Yang
—Escaping Transparency
2011Dong Yuan
—Grandmother's House
2013Robert Zhao Renhui
—Eskimo Wolf Trap Often Quoted in Sermons
2013Zhao Zhao
—Waterfall
2013