Solange Pessoa

Solange Pessoa is from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, a "high place of the colonial baroque now an industrial force 'thanks' to its activities of iron extraction." Her work is in part influenced by her surroundings, including the natural environment of her native Minas Gerais where the mining of iron ore, gemstones, gold, and other minerals is a prevalent cultural-historical force. In 1996–1997, Pessoa received a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. She has been making art since the 1980s, incorporating organic materials into her work from early in her career. According to Pessoa, "materials exist in connection with thoughts and intuitions. They call us and choose us, they attract our perception and curiosity, and their untransferable nature and mysteries require research and close observation." Critic Eduardo Jorge de Oliveira, in an academic essay on Pessoa's Cathedral, writes that her practice "performs a material philosophy of abjection and embodiment, where hair, leather, and wax become living forces rather than inert matter." This emphasis on organic substances situates Pessoa within broader debates in contemporary eco-art and feminist theory.

The artist has held solo exhibitions at Aspen Art Museum, Colorado; Tramway, Glasgow; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria; Ballroom Marfa, Texas; Museu Mineiro, Belo Horizonte; Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte; Museu da Inconfidência, Ouro Preto; Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte; and Centro Cultural São Paulo. Her participation in major international exhibitions includes the 59th Venice Biennale – "The Milk of Dreams" in 2022, where she presented works in the Arsenale and soapstone sculptures in the Giardino delle Vergini. Spanish newspaper El País described Pessoa's presence at Venice as emblematic of the Biennale's "turn toward artists who reimagine life-forms through matter itself." Other significant group exhibitions include "Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles" at the Barbican Centre, London; "Reclaim the Earth" at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2022); and "Living Worlds" at Fondation Cartier, Lille. In its review of the Barbican show, The Guardian noted that Pessoa's textile-based sculptures “suggest archaic rituals and ecological futures in equal measure.” Selected Solo Exhibitions • Year — Title — Institution — Notes • 1992 — Centro Cultural São Paulo • 1995 — Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte • 2000 — Museu da Inconfidência, Ouro Preto • 2008 — Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte • 2013 — Metaflor-Metaflora — Museu Mineiro, Belo Horizonte • 2019 — Longilonge — Ballroom Marfa • 2023 — Solange Pessoa — Kunsthaus Bregenz • 2025 — Pilgrim Fields — Tramway, Glasgow • 2025 — Catch the Sun with Your Hand — Aspen Art Museum