Playing with Lyz Parayzo

May 19 – July 1, 2023

373 Broadway
New York, NY

An opening reception will take place at the gallery on May 19, 2023 from 6-8 PM. The artist will be present.

SARAHCROWN is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Brazilian contemporary multimedia artist Playing with Lyz Parayzo. The immersive exhibition showcasing the artist’s playfully sharp sculptural works questions traditional concepts of gender, femininity, and self-representation and will run between May 19 – July 1, 2023.

Playing with Lyz Parayzo is, on its own, an ecosystem. The artist’s encapsulating installation at SARAHCROWN features Parayzo’s metal sculptures in varying sizes and shapes under vivid pink light. Her kinetic mobiles are hanging from the ceiling in constant rotating motion, while the Lygia Clark inspired, spiky Bixinha and Joujous are positioned on shelves along with Parayzo’s play box creations titled Jouets. These works, even though flirtatious and playful in form, are made of laser-cut aluminum and stainless steel. They are as dangerous and fine-edged as any weapon, because that’s exactly what they are: ammunition for herself, disguised as objects of play. In her text commissioned specifically for this exhibition, Brazilian scholar Luise Malmaceda writes:

“Playing with and against the desire for participation that permeated Brazilian Neo-Concrete art, Parayzo sharpens Lygia Clark's canonical Bichos series, renaming them with a variation of the derogatory word Bixinhas (Little faggots). Maintaining the cutting and folding logic of the object, as well as its materiality, she adds a layer pertinent to contemporary issues faced by the LGBTQI+ community. By sharpening the objects, she recalls the metal razor blades that Brazilian travestis (translated as transvestite, but a term used and reclaimed by trans women), especially sex workers, often carry hidden in the mouth gums for self-defense.”

This visual dichotomy between the feminine and masculine, play and danger, soft and bold escalates with the pink lighting and the movement of the hanging works, and finds itself a place in the involvement and interaction of the viewer through the gallery space. With the turning of the mobiles like windchimes in the breeze, the motion turns into emotion. Malmaceda writes, “[Parayzo] escapes representation but brings into view the symbolic experiences of a body subjected to civil and state brutality and in demand of defense mechanisms– a body that is both a site of desire and fear.” The emotion emanating from Playing with Parayzo reveals the one weapon hidden behind all others: the body, non-corporeal yet present in every inch of the exhibition. Be it along, against, or within, Parayzo is here to play.

For more information, please contact: info@sarahcrown.com | www.sarahcrown.com