Marina Rheingantz's Abstraction Emerges from Political and Environmental Tensions

Marina Rheingantz's exhibition 'Sedimentar' at Galpão Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel in São Paulo, running until December 21, 2022, marks a definitive shift from landscape representation to monumental abstract painting. This transition, noted before the pandemic, involves generous layers of paint and brief brushstrokes that may suggest figuration from a distance. The artist, born in 1983 in Araraquara, São Paulo, reflects that abstraction is like opening a window to another place, a transformation she links to the difficult political situation in Brazil following the 2018 election of Jair Bolsonaro. Works like 'Rabetão de ouro' were painted post-election, depicting mud sources as if the country were immersed in them. Rheingantz's international market ascent, highlighted in 2019 with simultaneous shows in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and exhibitions in Japan, Belgium, and the US, was paused by the pandemic. Her works are in major collections including Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Inhotim, MAM Rio, the Rubell Museum in Miami, and the Pinault Collection in Paris. Trained at Faap and influenced by her Waldorf education and childhood in the countryside, she began her career with an internship at Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel in 2006. Her first solo show, 'Algum dia', was at Fortes Vilaça in 2008. The artist, who initially signed works with her mother's surname Rheingantz, discusses the difficulty of verbalizing her work, preferring the painting to invent its own situations.