Marcela Cantuária

She studied Painting at the Escola de Belas Artes of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro from 2010 to 2017. Her research combines photographic archives, press images, oral histories, and literary and musical references. The resulting compositions bring different times and places together, with landscapes, animals and bodies sharing a narrative. Her painting extends into textiles, ceramics, murals and installations.

In Mátria livre she revisits female figures associated with resistance and emancipation. Maria Felipa e a fera do mar (2022), presented at MAM Rio, connects oral memory with collective action. In Oráculo Urutu, tarot and other symbols intersect with Brazilian culture. These series reveal two complementary approaches in her work: reconstructing histories and exploring new ways of imagining the present.

Her career includes Sutur|ar Libert|ar (2019) at Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica; La invocación del pasado a la velocidad del ahora (2022) at CentroCentro, Madrid; and Propostas de Reencantamento, presented at SESC Pompeia (2022–2023) and SESC Birigui (2024–2025). In Transmutação: alquimia e resistência (2024), at Paço Imperial in Rio de Janeiro, she expanded her investigation of memory and imagination through painting, wood and ceramics.

The South American Dream (2023–2024), curated by Jennifer Inacio at Pérez Art Museum Miami, was her first solo exhibition in the United States. The works commissioned for the exhibition explored the struggles of activists and defenders of South American territories.

Her presence in collections includes Maternidade compulsória (2016), donated to MASP in 2019; Fantasmas da Esperança (2018), held by Pinacoteca de São Paulo; and Voltarei e serei milhões (2018), in the Coleção Marielle Franco at Museu da Maré. The latter connects the memory of Marielle Franco with the representation of contemporary struggles. Her CV also records works at PAMM and Museu de Arte do Rio.

In 2026 she participates in Histórias latino-americanas at MASP and in the Brazil Pavilion at the 16th Gwangju Biennale. Her engagement with Spain also develops through El jardín de la insurrección, presented at Casa del Concejo in Arévalo, curated by Aldones Nino in collaboration with Collegium, Marquesa Gallery and Arévalo City Council. The project brings together portraits of the Trece Rosas and a collective composition dedicated to their memory. That year she also received the Colección Manuel Expósito Award at Estampa, with Marquesa Gallery.