Blau Projects innaugurates, on April 1st, the exhibition Forever and a day, a solo show featuring the artist from São Paulo Renata Cruz. With unseen watercolor drawings, the work is a result of periods when the artist lived in Japan and in Portugal and is made up of around 365 pieces that will occupy the walls of the gallery. Besides the exhibition, Renata will launch on April 03 a limited edition artist's book of the same name with pictures taken by Everton Ballardin in her atelier and designed by Reginaldo Pereira.

The exhibition is a result of two years of comings and goings between Brazil, Portugal and Japan, countries where the artist participated in artistic residencies. In Portugal, her investigation was made available by Carpe Diem Arte e Pesquisa at the house of Marquis of Pombal, in Lisbon, where she catalogues the original tiles left in the mansion. Inspired by the diversity of elements and by the Portuguese culture, she produced a series of watercolor pieces that refer to the experience.

In Japan, Renata spent a few months in a residency at Aomori Art Center. The Aomori region is one of the biggest apple producers in the world, what inspired her to paint still lives, and also to catalog her own routine in the place, gathering "momiji" leaves, the symbol for the passing of the time for the Japanese, and other found objects. "The issue of the passing of time is present in all of it, in the Portuguese tiles, in the still life, in the leaves, in all I bring from this experience", says the artist.

In her research on Japanese culture, she discovered writer Osamu Dazai, considered one of the top fiction writers of 20th century Japan. The phrases selected by the artist may be read in the Japanese and English in the watercolors, another brand of Renata's work, the intersection of painting and literature. In Portugal, she discovered an author called Al Berto, poet and painter born in Coimbra, who also inspired her to work on the passing of time.

All the experiences disembark in Brazil, where the artist was born. By drawing still life apples she was taken to the poem As peras, by Ferreira Gullar (from the book A luta corporal), in which the poet treats the passing of time through the deterioration of the fruit.

By covering the gallery with her work, Renata creates two great universes - the Japanese and the Portuguese -, that meet and commingle in the Brazilian culture.

The artist was born in Araçatuba, São Paulo, in 1964. She graduated in Visual Communications from Unesp, Bauru, SP, and in Artistic Education from Unaerp, Ribeirão Preto, SP. She went as a foreign student to Facultad de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Autónoma de Marid - Spain, and has a post-grad in Integrative Art from Anhembi Morumbi School, São Paulo, SP. She participated in Ateliê Fidalga along with artists Sandra Cinto and Albano Afonso, with whom she exhibited at Musashino Art University, in Tokyo, and in the II Visual Arts Biennial of the Sertão, in Juazeiro. She also participated in the Montevideo Biennial and exhibited in Sweden, Peru, Spain, Portugal, Japan, the United States, Germany and various Brazilian cities.

Focusing in various languages, such as painting, photography, video, drawing, performance and tridimensional, the gallery is on a space opened to the public since August of 2013, developed to strengthen the dialog with the public and artists. "Our mission is to support and stimulate young artists, while encouraging the discussion about contemporary art", says Juliana Blau. The artists represented by the gallery are Andrey Zignnatto, Ayrson Heráclito, Bruno Drolshagen, Éder Oliveira, Laerte Ramos, Maria Lynch, Pedro David, Renata Cruz and Laura Gorski, Vítor Mizael and Yuli Yamagata