Beatriz Milhazes (b.1960, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is widely recognised as one of the leading abstract artists working today.
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Maresias is Milhazes’ first exhibition in a public gallery in the UK for over twenty years. The exhibition traced the evolution of her artistic approach over the past four decades. Organised chronologically, each room explored how Milhazes interweaves the local and international, historic and contemporary, combining in her paintings references to Brazilian contexts and heritage with elements influenced by Western abstract painting.
‘My big ambition is always to try to do something new with abstraction,’
Nature is an enduring and increasingly important theme in Milhazes’ work. This was echoed in the title Maresias, which refers to the salty ocean breeze that is part of Milhazes’ everyday life in the coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, where she lives and works.
About the Artist
Milhazes emerged in the 1980s as an essential figure in the Brazilian art movement Geração Oitenta (1980s Generation). Embracing painting as a form of energy and expression, the artists associated with this group represented a vital shift away from the austere Conceptual art of the previous decade. In the context of military dictatorship, their work also signalled levity, exuberance and the first steps toward freedom that would come with the end of the regime in 1985. Today, Milhazes is known for intensely colourful, large-scale abstract canvases that present energetic contradictions. These works are characterised by a careful and deliberate composition that have the appearance of spontaneity. They also have slick surfaces that conceal the small details of cracks and layers, which signify the significance of history and memory to her painting process.
SUNLEY GALLERY WINDOW
Milhazes combined natural motifs from the landscape around her in Rio with the breathtaking view from the Sunley Gallery window, seamlessly blending her home horizon, the vast expanse of the ocean, and the limitless sky. Working with the idea of stained-glass but using translucent vinyl, Milhazes transformed the space with colour and light. She is inspired by artist Henri Matisse’s paper cut-outs and the windows he created for Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence, France.
By leaving the view partially visible, O Esplendor connected with the landscape surrounding the gallery. Its changing weather, the quality of light and the sunsets which inspired JMW Turner, encouraged us to reflect on our own relationship with the environment.
O Esplendor was adapted from an installation at the Long Museum, Shanghai, in 2021. Off-cuts of vinyl were used in the Clore Learning Studio as part of a programme of children's workshops and activities experimenting with Milhazes' techniques and inspired by her interest in the natural world.
In the press
Studio International
the Brazilian artist discusses being political, fusing elements of European modernism with Brazilian culture and the increasing importance to her of the natural world.
Read on
The Guardian
The Brazilian artist discusses her global inspirations, shape-shifting patterns, and why she’s still an optimist.
Read onTurner Editions
In 2024 Milhazes created an exclusive handmade collaged edition of 40 works. Bolha de Sabão [Soap Bubble], is comprised of 44 individual cut papers, the petal and leaf forms, together with the highly charged colour palette, resonate with the tropical fauna found in the botanical garden close to her studio. Milhazes has long incorporated natural forms into her work, increasingly taking inspiration from her local environment in Rio – from the surrounding rainforest to the Atlantic coastline – to centre her compositions on the cycles of renewal found in the natural world.
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