Marina Perez Simão

Marina Perez Simão explores the boundaries of abstraction, evoking a sense of awe by layering and juxtaposing colors to trap light, creating compositions that transcend the tangible world in a practice dedicated to exploring new possibilities and new states of matter. Along her exploration of “painting where words fail,” she, however, often draws from natural and geological phenomena, shifting colors at a certain hour of the day, or other perceptions and reception of light – ones often bound to experiences of places, methods, states of mind. Always starting with drawings and then watercolors, she builds structures that evolve into her paintings’ intricate compositions.

Notably, Simão’s approach is marked by a dynamic, almost musical complexity, blending natural and abstract elements to create interior and exterior landscapes. The artist describes her series as a form of dancing between paintings, with each work existing independently yet in relation to others, like a family or group of friends. This allows the artist’s works to remain open, shifting, and alive. For Simão, a painting is “never one thing or another.”

Marina Perez Simão (b. 1980, Vitória, Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo.

Her recent solo exhibitions include Amore a prima vista, Palazzo Marchetti, Malfa (2026); Diapasão, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2025); Echoes, Cahiers d'Art, Paris (2025); Diffusion, Mendes Wood DM, Paris (2024); Z W I E L I C H T, G2 Kunsthalle, Leipzig (2024); Solanaceae, Pace Gallery, Los Angeles (2024); Marina Perez Simão, Villa Era, Vigliano Biellese (2023); Marina Perez Simão: Watercolors, Cahiers d’Art, Paris (2022); Onda, Pace Gallery, London (2022); 5 pinturas, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2022); Observatory, Sifang Art Museum, Jiangsu (2021); Sonia Gomes & Marina Perez Simão, Pace Gallery, East Hampton (2020); Éveils Maritimes, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2020); Our dog-eyes, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2018); Miniature, Embassy of Brazil, Rome (2016).

Additionally, her work has been included in group exhibitions such as Bukhara Biennale, Bukhara (2025); Blinded by the Light, Casa da Cultura de Comporta, Comporta (2025); Horizontes: Peintures brésiliennes, Grand Palais, Paris (2025); All Our Todays, Muzeului de Artă Recentă (MARe), Bucharest (2025); Earth, Wind, and Fire: Visions of the Future from Asia, Okura Museum of Art, Tokyo (2024); Bonna: The Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka (2023); Multiple Sights: The Tenth Anniversary of the Long Museum, Long Museum, Shanghai (2022); Days of Inertia, Mendes Wood DM at d’Ouwe Kerke, Retranchement (2021).