Art & Culture

Next Big Things: Marina Perez Simão

São Paolo painter’s unique style hovers between abstraction and figuration

December 18, 2020

Artist sitting on the floor surrounded by colorful abstract paintings in a studio setting. — Marina Perez Simão in her São Paulo studio. Photo: ANA PIGOSSO

Gazing at one of Marina Perez Simão’s vivid landscapes feels like traveling to an unknown place you can’t quite make out. There are no real details, just the fluid suggestion of an environment and human bodies. Hovering between abstraction and figuration, the São Paolo painter’s unique style comes from working with oil to convey light and build dreamy layers.

A room displaying abstract paintings on walls and floor, featuring colorful and diverse designs and textures. — Marina Perez Simão’s São Paulo studio. Photo: ANA PIGOSSO

Point of view: “I’m more interested in distilling or subverting the traditional elements of landscape, but as I find myself in the middle of the process, I think more about rhythm, intensity, cadence, and rhymes.”

Up next: Following the fall show “Sonia Gomes / Marina Perez Simão” at Pace’s East Hampton pop-up, her work is on view in a solo show at Mendes Wood DM in Brussels through December 19. She’s currently preparing for a solo presentation at Pace in 2021. mendeswooddm.com, pacegallery.com

Art studio with a colorful painting on the wall, surrounded by various art supplies and canvases on the floor. — Marina Perez Simão’s São Paulo studio. Photo: ANA PIGOSSO

“I was first drawn to the work of Marina Perez Simão through a series of paintings that seem to peer through windows or doorways without deference to the laws of linear perspective. These works have a kind of immediacy, a unity of vision that is wonderfully counterbalanced by her precisely nested brushstrokes and her forms within forms.”

Rafael de Cárdenas, architect