Lucia Koch

Lucia Koch (b. 1966, Porto Alegre, Brazil) currently lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. Her work provokes altered states and she is known for using surfaces as filters and creating or transforming atmospheres with unnatural light. From 1992-96, Koch participated in the Arte Construtora collective project, which occupied houses and parks in different Brazilian cities. Her work was featured in the biennials of Sharjah, UAE (2013); Lyon, France (2011); Denver USA and Nagoya, Japan (2010) São Paulo, Brazil (2006); Gothenburg, Sweden (2005); Istanbul, Turkey (2003); Pontevedra, Spain (2000). Most recently she has been included in group shows at international venues such as, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus; PIER 24, San Francisco; Favela da Maré, Rio de Janeiro; the Yerba Buena Center For the Arts, San Francisco; and the Tokyo Contemporary Art Museum, Japan; and has had solo exhibitions at Capela do Morumbi and SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo; and La Casa Encendida, Madrid. Her work is included in many public and private collections such as the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon, France; University of Warwick, UK; Fundación ARCO, Spain; Banco Espirito Santo, Portugal; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo; among others.

Moving through space, the brain quickly calibrates light, distance, and texture—registering and mapping spatial relationships on an unconscious level for optimal efficiency and balance of the body. Lucia Koch (b. 1966) relies on this process as she intervenes in the architecture of our surroundings, constructing parameters that enable the body to slow down, observe, process, and experience the structural and ambient elements of the chosen site. Koch installs screens, filters, fabrics, and sculptural elements to heighten the inherent qualities of preexisting architecture and atmosphere and initiate a profound reevaluation of perception.

For Prospect.3, Koch has created Mood Disorder, a site-specific installation for the grand corner window of the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans. Printing directly onto translucent vinyl, acrylic, plexiglass, and glass, the artist employs her signature color gradients and light filters to generate and build a place for new and disordered sensorial experiences. By affecting the transparency of the window and the ambient light within, around, and outside it, Koch deconstructs the familiar barrier between interior and exterior space. To use a term from Koch’s practice, the space is corrected, or elevated to its appropriate potential. The window as divisional border is repositioned as a transitional, in-between, yet autonomous space, a place to locate oneself and not merely pass by or look through between experiences. The work acts as a porous skin that filters light and color out into the urban landscape and allows external elements to permeate the gallery, reminding us of the subjectivity of perception, the performance of our own bodies as we move through spaces, and the localized layers of meaning in the environments we occupy.