Projeto Vitrine

PIVÔ PRESENTS
PROJECT VITRINE WITH PAULO MONTEIRO
AND GOKULA STOFFEL

01–21 APRIL
PIVÔ COPAN

08–12 APRIL
SP–ARTE

In the year it celebrates its 15th anniversary, Pivô invites Paulo Monteiro and Gokula Stoffel for the third edition of Projeto Vitrine, held at Copan with an extension presented at SP-Arte 2026. The project, which has previously featured the duos Sônia Gomes and Juliana Santos (2021), and Erika Verzutti and Anderson Borba (2023), takes as its starting point the encounter between artists who share a common history—whether of friendship, affection, or prior collaboration—proposing that this proximity becomes the very engine of creation: a space where pre-existing complicity unfolds into works that could only emerge from this relationship.

In this edition, two artists who share a life take on the challenge of bringing together distinct practices, in which intimacy becomes material. The fact that both have been part of Pivô at other moments also makes this edition a celebration of the institution’s anniversary.

Monteiro, a central figure of the generation that emerged in the 1980s with the Casa 7 group, operates in a continuous tension between painting and sculpture, using negative space as a medium to make his paintings behave like objects and his objects like pictorial fields. Stoffel works from a porous attention to her surroundings, in a practice shaped by chance and the intrinsic properties of materials, moving fluidly between painting, sculpture, and weaving.

The approximately thirty new paintings reflect the singularity of this encounter, blurring the boundaries of individual identities and creating zones of intersection in which gestures, materials, and compositional decisions begin to operate collectively. The duo’s creative process also gives rise to a video documentation presented alongside the works, in which both artists share reflections, techniques, and creative processes.

Services

Pivô Copan
01–21 April

Av. Ipiranga, 200
República, São Paulo

Opening:
April 1, Tuesday, 7 PM

Visiting hours:
Tuesday to Saturday, 1 PM to 7 PM
Sunday and holidays, 12 PM to 6 PM

Free admission

SP-Arte
08–12 April

Bienal Pavilion
Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo

Visiting hours:
April 9 and 10, 12 PM to 8 PM
April 11, 11 AM to 8 PM
April 12, 12 PM to 7 PM

Get your ticket for SP-Arte

Photo:
Gui Gomes

Paulo
Monteiro

Paulo Monteiro (b. 1961, São Paulo) lives and works in São Paulo.

In his work, he develops an ongoing reconciliation with the dual languages of painting and sculpture, continuously exploring the margins and limits of form. In this way, he uses negative space as a medium, making paintings appear sculptural and sculptures appear painterly. Monteiro began his artistic practice in 1977, precariously assembling pieces of wood into compositions that simultaneously suggested movement and collapse, focusing on the expressive potential of the material. Between 1983 and 1985, he was part of the Casa 7 group, alongside Carlito Carvalhosa, Fábio Miguez, Nuno Ramos, and Rodrigo Andrade. In the late 1980s and early 2000s, Monteiro immersed himself in his sculptural practice. His return to painting more than a decade ago introduced a new level of awareness to his work, in which paint is pushed toward the edges of the canvas, creating strong, physical boundaries.

Photo:
Maria Eugênia Cortez

Gokula
Stoffel

Gokula Stoffel (b. 1988, Porto Alegre) lives and works in São Paulo.

Her works emerge from a close attention to her surroundings: familiarity with her materials is shaped by the context in which she produces, and her practice is informed and nourished by encounter and exchange. Stoffel incorporates fabrics received as gifts, sprigs of lavender gathered near her studio, almost meditative daily exercises, and conversations with friends and acquaintances. Upholstery elements, warps, resins, and natural and synthetic fibers share space in compositions that combine free execution with palpable emotional intensity, within a research that moves across media such as painting, sculpture, weaving, and drawing. The artist uses her hands in some works, brushes and sewing thread in others, uncovering an underlying order in her practice—one grounded not in fidelity to a single technique or its flawless execution, but in a sinuous process that embraces chance and the inherent properties of materials.