Paula Siebra

Working from notebooks, drawings, and memories, Paula Siebra develops her canvases through a measured accumulation of domestic, material, and vernacular images. In the studio, she often departs from toned grounds, usually terracotta, ochre or grayish neutrals, building thin layers that soften contours, reduce contrast, and temper hues so that light floats between object and field. Motifs, simultaneously specific and open multiply: a river, a hill, a clay jar, lace, wooden ex-votos, façades bleached by sun and sea, gloves, a packed suitcase, a dinner service. Across scenes belonging to everyday life, memory, and dreams, atmosphere carries as much weight as form. 

Siebra’s visual vocabulary first unfolded in Ceará, northeastern Brazil, where the artist was born and still lives, absorbing artifacts of daily life, silicogravura sand art, elements from nature, and the planar geometry of modest architecture. She engages with the canvas through patient looking and lived familiarity while expressing her subject matter beyond regionalism. A subtle semantic force animates her compositions, where meaning arises not through declaration but through the quiet pressure of forms held in relation. Siebra’s paintings reflect affinities with artists such as Frida Kahlo and Balthus in their handling of enclosed space and psychological layeredness and with Domenico Gnoli, Vicente do Rego Monteiro, and Antonio Donghi in their attention to form and figuration. 

Her artistic practice offers a “cartography of returns” – a method of establishing presence within the irregular accumulation of time and habit. The ineffable stillness found in a body of water is equally present in table scenes, portraits, and dioramic interiors. Many of these landscapes and rooms remain eerily unpeopled. When a figure does appear, it is seen from a slight remove, adding a soft voyeurism that intensifies the sense of private time held in suspension, whether in the form of solitary reflection or small groups engaged in celebration. 

Paula Siebra (b. 1998, Fortaleza, Brazil) lives and works in Fortaleza.

Her recent solo exhibitions include Pequeno mapa do tempo, Mendes Wood DM, Casa Iramaia, São Paulo (2026); Vestígios de Verão, Saga House and Enri-an Temple, Kyoto (2025); O estranho familiar, Mendes Wood DM, Paris (2025); As primeiras coisas, Mendes Wood DM, New York (2024); Cristalino Segredo, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2023); Noites de cetim, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2022); Lembrança de algum lugar, Sobrado Dr. José Lourenço, Fortaleza (2022); O Soar das Horas, Nieuwe Gentweg 21, Bruges (2023); Arrebol, Mendes Wood DM, New York (2021).

Additionally her work has been included in group shows such as Inefável presença, Centro Cultural Correios, Rio de Janeiro (2026); Remanso, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2025); Existências Paralelas, Pinacoteca do Ceará, Fortaleza (2025); Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato en conversation avec Lucas Arruda, Sanam Khatibi, Patricia Leite, Paula Siebra, Marcos Siqueira, Erika Verzutti et Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Mendes Wood DM, Paris (2024); 74º Salão de Abril, Centro Cultural Casa do Barão de Camocim, Fortaleza (2023); Arte Laguna Prize Exhibition, Arsenale di Venezia, Venice (2023); Close, Grimm Gallery, London (2023); A Gauzy Flame, Herald St, London (2023); Pequenas pinturas II, auroras, São Paulo (2022); My reflection of you, The Perimeter, London (2022); Corpo Ancestral – 21ª UNIFOR Plástica, Universidade de Fortaleza, Fortaleza (2022); Male Nudes: a salon from 1800 to 2021, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2022).