Side Gallery was thrilled to present: Form Follows Beauty, an exhibition involving two key figures in Latin American design. Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer, a main figure in the development of modern architecture during the twentieth century, and Pedro Reyes, a contemporary Mexican artist, creating a dialogue resonating with both modern and ancient sources. Critics and researchers are yet to thoroughly investigate the parallel between Oscar Niemeyer’s architecture and design. The dialogues between functionality and elegance of form, between artistic sensibility and intuition, are integral aspects of his work. Like many great artists, Niemeyer structures thought through the act of drawing. He designed and created furniture, in collaboration with his daughter Ana Maria Niemeyer, to ensure that his interiors spoke the same language as his architecture; in both, Niemeyer was seduced by the curved line and sinuous angle. The elegance and economy of his forms resemble that of Portuguese colonial furniture in Brazil; the former is equally uncomplicated and stripped down, with a Japanese influence similar to that which inspired Charlotte Perriand, and with an organic aesthetic similar to those of Jean Arp and Henry Moore. The curved line that defines the feminine figure, sensual and delicate, is the same line that defines Niemeyer’s architecture and his design. In his political drawings, the same enchantment for life and humanitarian qualities suggest that the world would be better if all humans were given the same opportunities.