Artist Abstract:
Marina Perez Simão (b. 1980, Vitória, Brazil) has developed a working process rooted in the accumulation and
juxtaposition of memories and images. Combining personal experiences with multiple references, which she filters
through pictorial means that defy predefined language, Simão integrates thematic density with delicate treatment in a
practice that encompasses painting, watercolor, textiles, and drawing.
Embracing “painting where words fail,” the artist produces works alive with movement, color, and light. She merges
interior and exterior landscapes, composing visual journeys that traverse the abstract and the nebulous as well as visions
and memories. Simão often draws from natural and geographical phenomena, using layers of paint to capture the shifting
light over land and seascapes as well as sources of metaphysical light rooted in place, memory, and process. Beginning
with sketches, which she develops into watercolors, the artist slowly builds up the structures that form the basis of her
paintings. Each series is loosely interconnected, with the works existing both independently and as part of a larger
network.
Important solo exhibitions of Simão’s work include Marina Perez Simão: Our dog-eyes, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo
(2018); Marina Perez Simão: Éveils Maritimes, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2020–21); Marina Perez Simão: Observatory,
Sifang Museum, Nanjing, China (2021–22); Marina Perez Simão: 5 Paintings, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2022); Marina
Perez Simão: Onda, Pace Gallery, London (2022); Marina Perez Simão: Watercolors, Cahiers d’Art, Paris (2022–23);
Marina Perez Simão, Villa Era, Vigliano Biellese, Italy (2023); Marina Perez Simão: Solanaceae, Pace Gallery, Los Angeles
(2024); Marina Perez Simão: Diffusion, Mendes Wood DM, Paris (2024); Marina Perez Simão: ZWIELICHT, G2 Kunsthalle,
Leipzig, Germany (2024–25); Marina Perez Simão: Echoes, Cahiers d'Art, Paris (2025); and Marina Perez Simão:
Diapasão, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2025).
Simão’s work is held in numerous public collections worldwide, including the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York; Deji Art
Museum, Nanjing, China; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Long Museum, Shanghai; Musée d'art moderne et
contemporain de Saint-Étienne Métropole, France; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona; and the
Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh, among others. She lives and works in São Paulo.