Solange Pessoa

The materials exist in connection with thoughts and intuitions. They call us, and choose us, they attract our perception and curiosity, and they require research and clever observations on their un-transferable nature and mysteries.

– Solange Pessoa

Beyond the clear references to organic life or prehistoric artistic experimentations, what stands out in Solange Pessoa’s work is a singular, pulsating vitality, which manifests itself in peculiar contours that create figures in which we recognize the primordial movement of genesis. Pessoa’s expansive practice draws inspiration from a plethora of sources: archaeology, prehistoric cave paintings, traditional craft, Brazilian Baroque, and poetry. Her stylization of life assumes a radical depth, offering a particular language for reading and imagining the world. Thus, we see species that carry traits from the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms and convey universality through their most regional aspects.

Solange Pessoa (b.1961, Ferros) lives and works in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Her selected solo institutional exhibitions include Solange Pessoa, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2023); Longilonge, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa (2019); Metaflor-Metaflora, Museu Mineiro, Belo Horizonte (2013); Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2008); Museu da Inconfidência, Ouro Preto (2000); Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte (1995); and Centro Cultural São Paulo (1992).

Pessoa has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Brazil and abroad including Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles, The Barbican Center, London (2024); Fondation Cartier pour L’Art Contemporain, Triennale Milano, Milan (2024); The 59th International Biennale di Venezia – The Milk of Dreams, Venice (2022); Reclaim the Earth, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2022); Living Worlds, Fondation Cartier, Lille (2022); Elementos Vitales: Ana Mendieta in Oaxaca, OA Juarez, Oaxaca (2021); This Morning, in the Sweet Torpor of the Great Forest, is Like Every Morning in the World, SALT, Renens (2020); Invenção de Origem, Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo (2018); La Fin de Babylone - Mich Wunder, dass ich so Fröhlich bin, Koln Skulptur #9, Cologne (2017); New Shamans (2016), High Anxiety (2016), and No Man’s Land: Women Artists (2015), Rubell Family Collection, Miami; Arte e Patrimônio, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro (2014); Arqueologia das Terras Altas, 4th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre (2003) Mostra do Redescobrimento, CAPS Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux (2001); Heranças Contemporâneas (1999) and Encontros e Tendências (1993), Museu de Arte Contemporânea de São Paulo, No Existen los Limites, Hospital Matarazzo, São Paulo (1996).