Marina Perez Simão

Vitória, Brazil, 1980

            Marina Perez Simão creates abstract landscapes that exude a unique sensitivity toward memory and nature. Born in Vitória, Brazil, Simão grew up between the mountains of Minas Gerais and the coasts of Rio de Janeiro, environments that shaped her perception of light, color, and movement. She initially studied law, but her passion for art led her to train at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where she lived for seven years, and later at the École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle, earning a BFA and an MFA. Since returning to São Paulo, where she lives and works, Simão has developed a body of work that navigates between figuration and abstraction, capturing the emotion of her landscapes with fluid brushstrokes and vibrant colors that evoke both the tangible and the ineffable.

            A milestone in her career was her first solo exhibition at Pace Gallery, Tudo é e não é, presented in New York in April 2021—a recognition that marked her international rise after years of collaboration with Mendes Wood DM, the gallery that has represented her since its founding in 2010. In this exhibition, Simão showcased 22 oil paintings and ten watercolors created during the pandemic, works that reflect her sensitivity to the landscapes of her childhood: the turbulent hues of Rio de Janeiro and the dense fog of Minas Gerais transform into compositions that vibrate with their own musicality, as if dancing between light and shadow. The emotional depth of her paintings lies in their ability to convey ambiguous moods—the calm before a storm, the nostalgia for a place that never existed—inviting viewers to immerse themselves in a world where the real and the dreamlike intertwine.

            Simão’s work, employing techniques such as oil, watercolor, and collage, draws from an intuitive process that begins with sketches and watercolors before approaching the canvas with confident gestures, layering colors that capture light and movement in an almost metaphysical manner. Her institutional recognition includes exhibitions at the Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing (2021), the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing (2020), and her inclusion in permanent collections such as the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Saint-Étienne and the Speed Art Museum in Louisville. Through her landscapes, Simão not only explores the vastness of Brazilian nature but also offers a poetic refuge where emotions overflow—a testament to her ability to transform the visible into a profound echo of the human experience.