Cinthia Marcelle. A Conjunction of Factors

Cinthia Marcelle studied Fine Arts at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, and currently lives and works in Sâo Paulo. With a critique that does not surrender its poetic gaze, her large-scale videos and installations, as well as her drawings, photographs and small objects, detect the contradictions of life in big cities. Visually engaging, Marcelle’s work reveals her constant concern for collective dynamics and the dialectic between chaos and order, whether in the demographic, political or economic fields. She usually works with groups of people such as industrial workers, farmers, activists, musicians or museum staff, with whom she organises choreographed interventions that analyse the processes and systems of class, labour and hierarchy. The result is a work that emphasises collective forms of relationship and power, but also memory, education, empathy and love.

She has had solo exhibitions at the Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2004); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2008); Camberwell College of Arts, London (2009); Rochester Art Center, Rochester, USA (2012); Vienna Secession (2014); MoMA PS1, New York (2016); and MACBA, Barcelona (2022). She has participated in the biennials of Havana (2006), Lyon (2007), Sâo Paulo (2010), Sharjah (2015, 2013), Istanbul (2013), Porto Alegre (2013) and Berlin (2018), and represented Brazil at the Venice Biennale (2017). Her work is included in the collections of the Museu de Arte Moderna, Bahia de Salvador; Museo de Arte Moderna, Sâo Paulo; Pinacoteca do Estado, Sâo Paulo, all three in Brazil; Tate Modern, London; Royal Library, Copenhagen; MoMA, New York; and MACBA, Barcelona.