Mariana Palma

Mariana Palma’s work takes the form of paintings, watercolors, and photographs, in which colors and images of nature are explored in various formats and technical solutions.

In her paintings, which can reach large dimensions, the canvas’s entire surface is covered by complex chromatic patterns obtained through the marbling technique. Over them, compositions with disparate elements are created, such as tiles, drains, plants, flowers, and fabrics. Combining a precise rhythmic composition with a dramaticity that evokes Baroque painting, the images created by Palma at times make the creases and veins of the petals and the drapery undistinguishable and at other times disrupt elemental premises of painting, such as figure and background, the distinction between planes, and the notions of portrait and landscape.

Contemplation on temporality and vitality also gains room in the watercolors, photographs, and works on fabric, in which the artist exercises the approximation of different organic elements.

She is graduated in Fine Arts by Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado – FAAP, 2001. Since then, she has held multiple solo exhibitions, among which The Painting as a Verb, at Millan, in 2023; Lago Interior, Teatro Municipal Casa da Ópera, Ouro Preto, 2022; Assim como os jardins…, Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, 2021; Lumina, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, 2020; and Soma, Casa Triângulo, São Paulo, 2017. Among her group shows the following stand out: MON sem paredes, Museu Oscar Niemeyer – MON, Curitiba, Brazil, in 2023, and Afinidades II, in 2022, at the same institution; 50 duetos, Espaço Cultural Unifor, Fortaleza, 2021; Abstración, Galeria El Museo, Bogotá, Colombia; A Luz que Vela o Corpo é a Mesma que Revela a Tela, Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, 2017; Piece by Piece: Building a Collection, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, USA, 2015; Trajetórias – Arte Brasileira na Coleção Fundação Edson Queiroz, Espaço Cultural Unifor, Fortaleza, 2013; and This is Brazil! 1990-2012, Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos – Palexco, La Coruña, Spain, 2012.

Her works are featured in the permanent collections of important institutions, such as: Museu de Arte do Rio – MAR, Rio de Janeiro; Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba; Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo; Fundação Edson Queiroz, Fortaleza; Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto, Ribeirão Preto; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Campinas, Campinas; and Casa do Olhar Luiz Sacilotto, Santo André.

Artist’s website