Lucas Arruda's Amazonian Landscapes at Madrid's Ateneo Library

The Ateneo de Madrid, a historic private cultural institution founded in 1820, hosts the first Spanish exhibition of Brazilian artist Lucas Arruda (b. 1983, São Paulo), curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist. Presented by the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Madrid and open until March 8, the show titled 'Assum Preto' features 28 small-format paintings created between 2013 and 2022, drawn from museums, private collections, and the foundation itself. Arruda, a student of Paulo Pasta, navigates between figuration and abstraction, depicting Amazonian forests bathed in light. Obrist compares the works to Cézanne's interplay between materiality and observed reality. The exhibition is set within the Ateneo's 19th-century library, juxtaposing rare books with paintings. The Ateneo, born from the liberal triennium of 1820, remains a hub for interdisciplinary exchange and holds a premier collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century publications.