Artist:
Angelina Gualdoni (born 1975 in San Francisco, USA; lives and works in Brooklyn, USA).

Materials:
Acrylic and oil on canvas; 122 x 183 cm.

Description:
“Praça dos Tres Poderes is a large, imposing square at the heart of Brasilia, the political capital of Brazil. Constructed between 1956 and 1960 to a design by visionary architect Oscar Niemeyer, and heralded as a landmark in contemporary urban planning, the city has come to be seen as a terrible utopian failure. Functionless, soul-numbing, and inhospitable to human traffic, it today stands as a dated, retro icon, and a symbol of the death of modernism itself. Gualdoni perfectly captures this emptiness, portraying a vast expanse of barren sky above the deserted pedestrian plaza, empty but for the discarded trolley of a popcorn vendor. The present, it is all too clear, is elsewhere, and the future is one of hushed uncertainty.”
—”Angelina Gualdoni: Praça dos Tres Poderes,” website of the Saatchi Gallery.

“Angelina Gualdoni’s paintings have a disaffecting, almost apocalyptic quality that is formally balanced by beautiful textures and colors as well as the shapes of modernist architecture. Gualdoni’s interest lies in the entropic decay and destruction of these buildings, which often reflected utopian designs for the future when they were constructed. Taking the city of Brasilia as a case study for this exhibition, she depicts government buildings and monuments located in the Praça dos Tres Poderes (Square of the Three Powers) to see how many mid-century building designs and urban plans function today.”
—”UBS 12 x 12: New Artists/New Work; ANGELINA GUALDONI: Feb 4-27, 2005,” website of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.