Patricia Leite

Navigating various references, Patricia Leite gives an outlet to her memories and latent affections through an extremely peculiar pictorial exercise. Bucolic scenes from trips or images extracted from videos that caught her attention trigger a process towards paintings that come into existence in a rare combination between seriousness and leniency. In her cohesive body of work, we find recurring echoes and resonances from themes and styles that are well represented in the history of art, such as landscape painting and pop art elements. However, these resources are always used as a support to express intimate manifestations that could be in a diary or on a map with organically collected and carefully edited images.  

Vibrating between abstraction and figuration, her artworks deal with the movement from a solid state to an inconstant moment. While her use of large color blocks on the absorbingly rigid wood put us in front of imposing planes, on the other, everything that is there cannot be fully, let alone definitively, defined. Rather, what we have is an opening of light that outlines everything whilst leaving room for us to witness its constant transformations. We see the emergence of points of contact – that are always inexact – between the ethereal and matter.  

From striking colors such as avocado green and solid tones of blue to graphic frugality, the artist chooses her building blocks to portray the world in different levels of intensity. Behind her choices lies her desire to get closer to singular atmospheres and to touch sensations that surface from visual experiences, such as basking in the sun in Minas Gerais, watching a carnival parade, or contemplating nightfall on the beach.  

Patricia Leite (b. 1955, Belo Horizonte, Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo.  

Some of the artist's solo exhibitions include: Fondazione Istituzione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice (2025); Intituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2025); Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2024); Mendes Wood DM, New York (2022); Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2021); Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2020); The Arts Club, London (2019); Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2018); Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2015); Nara Roesler, São Paulo (2009); Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2005).

Additionally, her work was included in group exhibition at Casa da Cultura Comporta and Espaço Museológico Museu do Arroz, Comporta (2026);  Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem (2026); Sala Curva, São Paulo (2026); Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2026); Mendes Wood DM at d’Ouwe Kerk, Retranchement (2025); Mendes Wood DM, Paris (2024); Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2023); Pace Gallery, New York (2022); Mendes Wood DM at d’Ouwe Kerk, Retranchement (2021); Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem (2020); Thomas Dane, Naples (2019); Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2018); Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo (2018); Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2016).   

Her works are in numerous permanent collections such as  Pinault Collection, Paris; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo; Fiorucci Art Trust, London; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary,Vienna; Cranford Collection, London; Loewe Collection, Madrid; Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte.