Mendes Wood DM São Paulo is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Argentine artist Santiago de Paoli in Brazil. Bebê Rasteja brings together recent oil paintings on felt, copper, cardboard, plaster and wood.

De Paoli develops his painting in a particular sphere of discussion about the image, bringing everyday observable elements such as the moon, stars, household objects, and genitals. This simplicity in the construction of the image is the counterpoint to the unusual materials used as support for his painting, where he explores fundamental painting concepts such as light and color.

Consistently presenting surrealistic explorations of image and time in his composition, the work evokes some aspects of 16th-century Italian painting, such as looking at isolated parts of the human body as geometric resolutions to realistic simplicity in gestures. De Paoli studies the image with humorous objectivity while earnest about the essence of painting.

The show unites works that attempt to elicit an almost naive perspective, like the baby gaze discovering the form and its foundation, this ambiguous composure between the inception of the image and its more complex developments are the pivot of his investigation about the image. The non-discourse in Paoli's painting, the emptying of reason, and return to the primitive view on things are the core of the exhibition.

Santiago de Paoli (1978, Buenos Aires) lives and works in London. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, USA in 2004 and graduated from Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, USA in 2006. His works recently participated in the exhibitions peintures et Hotline, Galerie Jocelyn Wolf, Paris, France (2018); Hopscotch, Art Basel Cities, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2018); Nouveau National Museum of Monaco, Villa Paloma, Monaco (2018); Show VII, The Factory, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2017); Know without Mi, Tabacalera Promoción del Arte, Madrid, Spain (2017); Symbolism, Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, Canada (2017); José Antonio Suárez Londoño and Santiago de Paoli, Lulu, Mexico City, Mexico (2017).