Through compellingly staged and abstract scenes of order and chaos, Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado: Divine Violence speculates on the potential for revolution in everyday life. In doing so, the exhibition attends to the artists’ reflections on violence (and by extension anarchy) as a means to undercut the forces of law, power, and capital.

Black Hole (2008) depicts two opposing air currents scattering a mass of white powder across a black ground. From this a series of abstractions emerges, evoking the familiar monochromatic silhouettes of planetary constellations and Rorschach tests. In the constant push and pull between forces, this video offers subtle commentary on the shifting dynamics between individuals and contesting positions. Confronting the poetics and politics of urban life in Brazil and other global locations, The Century (2011) and One Way Street (2013) are interrelated pieces that provide different viewpoints on a shared event—a street protest. The former focuses on a crescendo of street detritus including helmets, rocks, trashcans, clothing, and tires thrown into the spectator’s field of view, whilst the latter offers the reverse shot of a group of “black bloc” protesters hurling objects beyond the camera’s frame. Completing the selection of works on view, Community (and the other process) (2016) presents two versions of an orderly line on the precipice of rupture, one depicted through a group of individuals standing in wait, and the other through an animated line drawing.

Cinthia Marcelle lives and works in Sao Paulo, and graduated in Fine Arts from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Marcelle recently participated in the 11th Sharjah Biennial (2015), and will represent Brazil at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017). Her recent solo exhibitions include MoMA PS1 (2016); Secession, Vienna (2014); Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil [CCBBR], Rio de Janeiro (2013); and Pinchuck Art Center, Kyiv, Ukraine (2012). Marcelle's work has been part of significant events and group exhibitions, including the Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2015); the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (2013); the second New Museum Triennial, New York (2012); the Tate Level 2 Gallery, London (2012); the Bienal de Lyon (2007); Panorama da Arte Brasileira, São Paulo (2007) and Madrid (2008); and the IX Bienal de la Habana (2006). Marcelle awards include the Future Generation Prize from the Victor Pinchuck Foundation (2010) and the TrAIN Artist-in-Residency Award from Gasworks, London (2009).

Tiago Mata Machado is a Brazilian film critic, curator, and filmmaker. After completing his graduate degree at the Institute of Arts of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), he served as a film critic for the newspapers O Tempo (1996–2000) and Folha de S. Paulo (2000–06). As a curator, he organized the film program Vanguards/Neovanguards and Subversives at the 11th and 12th Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festivals, as well as Collective Films/68 at the Forumdoc.BH (2010). He directed Curra Urbana (1998) and the feature films O Quadrado de Joana (2002) and The Residents, which premiered internationally at the 61st Berlin Film Festival/Berlinale, in February 2011.

Yesomi Umolu is exhibitions curator at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, where she oversees international contemporary art programming in the Logan Center Gallery and throughout the multidisciplinary art center. Specializing in global contemporary art and spatial practices, Umolu recently curated Kapwani Kiwanga: The sum and its parts (2017) and So-called Utopias (2015) at the Logan Center Gallery. Prior to joining the Logan, Umolu was assistant curator at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University and curatorial fellow for visual arts at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. She also held curatorial positions at the European biennial of contemporary art Manifesta 8, region of Murcia, Spain and the Serpentine Galleries, London. She has also contributed to programming at Iniva and Tate Modern, London. Her writing has appeared in numerous catalogues and journals, including Art in America, Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, and the Studio Museum in Harlem’s Studio magazine. Umolu received an MA with honors in architectural design from the University of Edinburgh and an MA with distinction in curating contemporary art from the Royal College of Art, London. She is a 2016 recipient of an Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Fellowship.

The Reva and David Logan Center for the Artsadvances arts practice, inquiry, and presentation at the University of Chicago, and fosters meaningful collaboration and cultural engagement at the University, on the South Side, and in the city of Chicago.