Marina Perez Simão

Onda

Past
Sep 7 – Oct 1, 2022
London

Exhibition Details:

Marina Perez Simão
Onda
Sep 7 – Oct 1, 2022

Gallery:

5 Hanover Square
London

Press:

Press Release

Connect:

(opens in a new window) @marinasimao__
(opens in a new window) @pacegallery

Above: Marina Perez Simão, Untitled, 2022 © Marina Perez Simão

Pace Gallery is pleased to announce Onda, a solo exhibition of new work by Brazilian artist Marina Perez Simão. Marking the artist’s first presentation in the UK, Simão will take over all three gallery spaces with a suite of new paintings in her distinctive painterly style.

This exhibition coincides with the launch of a major artist monograph published by Rizzoli featuring new texts by Osman Can Yerebakan and Fernanda Brenner.

At stake in Marina Perez Simão’s practice is an investigation of the metaphysical. Her work hovers in the liminal space between abstraction and figuration, expertly handling colour, form, and texture to convey the feeling of a landscape and the power of nature. Working across painting, drawing, and collage, Simão cites figures such as Luchita Hurtado, Georgia O’Keefe, and Agnes Pelton as key artistic inspirations.

Growing up between Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, Simão’s practice is intrinsically linked to the wild and dramatic landscapes of her childhood. From the dense fog that shrouds the surrounding hills of Minas Gerais to the crackling storms in Rio, Simão’s experience of nature is that of a vital and powerful force which demands both wonder and fear. Titling the exhibition after the Portuguese for ‘wave’, Onda encapsulates this duality as the artworks at once encircle and collide with the visitors. In Untitled (2022), a large, four-panel work expands across the lower ground floor gallery wall in large swathes of jewel-toned oranges, yellows, and greens. A riot of colour and serpentine form, this large-scale work envelops the viewer, immersing them into the artist’s dream-like world. Simão’s distinctive use of colour and gesture creates the impression of fabric, recalling the texture of fine velvet.

Close observation of light is fundamental to Simão’s painting practice. Using a dynamic contrast of warm and cool, rich and earthy tones, her works simultaneously absorb and emit light, creating a hypnotic, pulsating effect. For Simão, darkness holds a particular potency, she believes mystical transformations occur under cover of night. At the end of each day in the studio, Simão turns off the lights and observes her works at dusk, relishing in the way the oil paint glows and mutates on the linen.

In dialogue with Simão’s reverence for nature is her admiration for other art forms including music, poetry, and literature. The undulating forms in her work are often informed by the rhythmic patterns of classical music, likewise the imagery conjured by poets such as Emily Dickinson resonate deeply with Simão’s expert manipulation of gesture and emotion. In Onda, Simão displays large-scale, multi panel works beside intimately- scaled paintings, constructing what she calls a ‘rhythmic rapport’ between her dynamic works, allowing viewers the opportunity to closely examine the texture and materiality of her idiosyncratic style.

Featured Works

Untitled by Marina Perez Simão — Marina Perez Simão, *Untitled*, 2022, oil on linen, 78-3/4" × 66-7/8" (200 cm × 169.9 cm), each 78-3/4" × 280-5/16" (200 cm × 712 cm), overall

Installation Views

About the Artist

Marina Perez Simão (b. 1980, Vitória, Brazil) has developed a working process based fundamentally on the accumulation and juxtaposition of memories and images. By combining personal experiences and multiple references stemming from fields such as philosophy, literature, and journalism, the artist collects certain narratives in order to edit them through pictorial means that do not belong to any predefined language; rather, they develop with an organic practice, which combines thematic density and a delicate treatment.

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