Untitled (from the Deserto-Modelo series)

Known for his evocative landscapes, Lucas Arruda　refreshes the genre by depicting an imaginary place rather than faithfully rendering a geographic location. His small-format, subtly charged seascapes, jungles, and monochromes blur the boundaries between figuration and abstraction and are often displayed in series as Deserto-Modelo (Models of Desert). The title, borrowed from the Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto, emphasizes the metaphor of the desert as an atemporal place that cannot be grasped through language. Arruda’s works propose the contemplation of landscapes as an exercise of personal introspection.

In Untitled (from the Deserto-Modelo series), 2023, a seascape is defined by a low horizon line and a large mass of sky. Richly textured brushwork foregrounds the physicality of the painting technique as much as the subtle rendition of light and charged atmospheric conditions of the scene, verging on an abstract composition of blue hues. Arruda’s studies of perception, tactility, and abstraction align with the work of Romantic and Impressionist painters such as Caspar David Friedrich, J.M.W. Turner, and Claude Monet. Beyond these influences, his artistic process starts with a small canvas in the studio. Without an image in mind, he builds up the picture through memory and meditation. He never paints outdoors, though he uses the descriptive terms of "seascapes" and "landscapes" for lack of better labels. "The only reason to call my works landscapes is cultural", he noted, emphasizing "it’s the idea of landscape rather than a real place."[1]

[1] Angeria Rigamonti di Cutò, "Lucas Arruda: ‘The only reason to call my works landscapes is cultural,’" studiointernational.com, September 19, 2017.