Ad Minoliti at Kunsthalle Lissabon / Lisbon

Ad Minoliti - Nave Vermelhe

September 16 – November 21, 2020

Kunsthalle Lissabon

R. José Sobral Cid 9E

1900-312, Lisbon

Photo Bruno Lopes

Ad Minoliti is an artist whose work combines the pictorial language of geometric abstraction with a whimsical interpretation of queer and feminist theory. Engaging in a diversity of formats and media, Minoliti assumes painting not as a mere material practice, but rather as a visual set of ideas to approach normative categories of sexuality and biology. Throughout her work, geometrical forms and surreal landscapes serve to conjure a post-humanist setting (and set of references) in which feminist and gender theories can be applied to an open interpretation of painting, design, and art history. Whether in paintings and installations that tackle queer theory or as cofounder of the feminist art collective PintorAs, Minoliti makes little distinction between life and artistic practice: both serve as vectors for challenging social hierarchies in art and politics.
Nave vermelhe is an installation that invites visitors of Kunsthalle Lissabon into a queer and alien vehicle of space exploration. Referencing the artist’s long interest in pop culture’s obsession with sci-fi and how it imagines and depicts the construction of otherness, the ship that has landed in the Lisbon basement presents itself as a place in which binaries tend to be completely irrelevant: human vs animal vs plant vs technology vs male vs female make very little sense for the space visitors. A cute furry being, simultaneously species and gender ambiguous, greets visitors to an empty room where one can find nothing besides a group of abstract painted stools. Whether alien furniture, or a coded language remains uncertain. The command center is visible through a round window and seems busting with activity. Control panels and view screens are being operated by big-eyed, cartoonish or pet-like, spheres and vagina-eye plant hybrids.