The Brazilian visual artist, researcher, and mentor Solange Pessoa brings her first-ever focus on audiovisual production to Itaú Cultural with “Outras Escalas. Desenhos, filmes e instalação”. Running through August 4th to November 1st, the Franklin Espath Pedroso curated exhibition features approximately 150 unseen drawings, 10 experimental films, and a striking installation derived from her acclaimed work Campos Peregrinos.
Solange Pessoa, 65, born in Minas Gerais, is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Brazilian art. Her career is defined by exploring the connection between nature and culture, using materials such as feathers, hair, leather, blood, and fat to create her sculptures, installations, drawings, paintings, ceramics, and video works.
Materials exist in connection with thoughts and intuitions. They call to us and choose us; they attract our perception and curiosity, and require research and observation regarding their non-transferable nature and mysteries” – Solange Pessoa
National and International Recognition
Solange Pessoa’s work signature is defined by three major series that blend organic materials and art. Her Cathedrals and Earthworms (Catedrais e Minhocas) series features fabric and felt sculptures packed with organic matter, creating forms that evoke visceral bodies and cocoons. Similarly connected to nature, her Sabará stone sculptures, carved from heavy soapstone and granite, incorporate hollows designed to collect rainwater, leaves, and moss, allowing the surrounding environment to continuously transform the artwork over time.
Bridging sculpture with visual imagery, her large-scale drawings feature massive black ink panels covered in fluid, biomorphic shapes that resemble ancient fossils and archaeological symbols. Together, these series have anchored an impressive global trajectory. After building strong national recognition through solo exhibitions at institutions like the Museu da Inconfidência and Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Pessoa’s work gained major international appreciation with features at the 59th Venice Biennale, Palais de Tokyo, and Fondation Cartier, as well as solo exhibitions at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Centro Botín and Itaú Cultural.
Career and Artistic Language
A Fine Arts graduate from the Guignard School at UEMG (State University of Minas Gerais), where she later taught Sculpture, Pessoa began her work in the 1980s. Incorporating organic materials into her pieces from the very beginning of her career, it became her signature artistic style.
According to Pessoa, her approach reflects her philosophy: “I don’t like the separation between culture and nature. I hold this idea of an integrated philosophy, a natural philosophy that incorporates culture as part of nature.”
She also draws inspiration from observing nature, the cycles of life, the human body, the landscapes of Minas Gerais, the transformation process of matter, her state’s mining history, and her surrounding environment. In 2020, Frieze magazine highlighted: “as in many of Pessoa’s works, nature was invited to take the lead.”
Merging her philosophy with an exploration of raw matter, Solange Pessoa continues to shape the narrative of contemporary art on a global scale. By dissolving the boundaries between human culture and the natural environment, her creations is a reminder that true creation is never static, but an ever-evolving force.
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The article above was edited by Giulia El Houssami.
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