Ana Prata
UVA, 2022
Acrylic and oil on fabric
30 x 24 cm
There is a latent ambiguity in Ana Prata’s work that can walk between humor, interiority and critical spirit. Her colorist figurative paintings lately depict still lives of fruits and objects that appear cut from the landscape. An interior landscape that is hardly insinuated since it is not used as a resource of reality or context, on the contrary, it confronts us with a lyrical and symbolic dialogue with the domestic.
The artist relates to the modernist repertoire in a way that is neither reverential nor nostalgic, rather she seems to probe it as if she were an archaeologist, borrowing and distorting hieroglyphs to assimilate them into the conversation on contemporary painting. The result is a body work flirting with the decorative arts and graphism. Her lush stroke is at the same time combined with transparencies that give an atmospheric, solar and light effect to her optically dynamic images.
Prata currently has a solo exhibition, A vida das coisas, at Centro Cultural SESC Pompéia in São Paulo. She was part in the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo – Affective Affinities, which took place at the Bienal Pavilion in São Paulo (2018); she has also presented solo exhibitions at Galeria Millan (São Paulo, 2021, 2017, 2014); Travesía Cuatro Madrid (2020) and Guadalajara (2020); Auroras (São Paulo, 2019), Isla Flotante Gallery (Buenos Aires, 2019); Mário de Andrade Municipal Library (São Paulo, 2018); Pippy Houldswoth Gallery (London, 2016); Instituto Tomie Ohtake (São Paulo, 2012); Centro Cultural São Paulo (2009), among others. She has taken part in group exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo; Caixa Cultural (Rio de Janeiro,2017); Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz (Ribeirão Preto, 2015); SESC_Videobrasil (São Paulo, 2011 and 2013); Instituto Tomie Ohtake (São Paulo, 2011); Instituto Moreira Salles (Rio de Janeiro, 2013). She was one of the nominees for the PIPA Award in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. In 2011, she was a resident artist at the Red Bull Art House in São Paulo and at Unlimited residence, New York in 2016. Her work is part of international collections including Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil; Pinault Collection, France; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, US; MAC, São Paulo, Brazil and Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. The artist lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil.