Caroline Menezes reviews the exhibition Fabricio Lopez – Várzea at Mercedes Viegas Arte Contemporânea Gallery, Rio de Janeiro (on view through August 24 ) and interviews the artist about his work – large scale woodcuts and carved relief paintings.

Menezes writes that "it is rare to find an emerging artist who uses woodcut as his main artistic language, or attempts to explore new possibilities of artistic expression within woodcarving. For this reason, the work of the artist Fabricio Lopez is unexpectedly refreshing as he uses wood as the matrix of new ideas in arts… His printing procedure requires a gentle yet vigorous process. It involves his entire body dominating the wide expanse of paper surface that he employs to create large-format prints, which can measure up to 5m x 3m… For the artist, even the wooden plank that generates many different prints has a lifespan and at a certain point deserves to become an artwork itself. When this time comes, Lopez alters its surface and makes a painted relief that contains the memory of the many images it has already made, remnants of paper and ink like the ghosts of old impressions."