I’m Not Here Anymore
(2021) acrylic and ink on marine plywood.
3.5m x 1.1m / 138inches x 43.3inches.
price: BRL 51,800 / $9,500.
Commentary from Adam Holzrichter & Trevor Knapp.
From Adam Holzrichter:
The waterfall is large and appears it was once a smaller painting. I believe this is because of its two panels, but more so since I know Bruno Passos’ brutal working methods. I tend to follow a waterfall to its summit, when I’m standing below it. This means I’m observing its insides, which look to be extremely abstract – If I took a saw and cut this painting into a hundred pieces I believe each would be remarkable on its own – The height of this painting is almost exhausting, and once my eyes reach the top they are richly rewarded by a sun-kissed pink land mass that rests between two groupings of aqua treetops. It’s a better world up there. I suppose I could climb up this jagged cliff face, but maybe this ghostly figure in the lower center of the picture had thought the same thing.
It’s a world I believe I can struggle, and thrive within. I want to exist in a place where the waterfall is more than a cliche, but rather a pathway to something higher. I wonder what Bruno intended for me to feel. I don’t believe it’s important in this case. I feel moved to explore its richness with a fine toothed comb. Getting caught up in so many small alcoves that seem to have fought their own way into existence, Sun dappled or blood soaked, I can’t differentiate. Marvelous!
From Trevor Knapp:
With Bruno’s painting of this great waterfall, I see a language shine through of someone using everything possible to make sense of the world. The work speaks in a way like a pit in my stomach. Like that deep intuition you feel when something feels off, but you can’t necessarily say what exactly that is. When I inspect this painting closer, I find how this ordered composition has wonderful chaos within its finer details. I see nature for what it is. Chaos becoming order. And then I see the apparition gazing at me, just barely there. The history of a person still there, even though they are no longer really there. Gone to the flow of time, like a river continuously flowing.
This painting makes me feel like Bruno was in search, and succeeded even just a little more, in finding his true Self… by becoming no one, becoming nature. I say this because of how the portrait can be seen within the work: A character once rendered so thickly and with detail that I can almost see the portrait behind the waterfall and the nature surrounding. The figure is still trying to pull through and be seen, but loses itself to the grandiosity of the water and stone. To finally see the beauty that is out there is within as well. Yes, another epic painting by Bruno. Well done.
TRIPTICO 