Mariana Rocha: Desde sempre o mar

A Gentil Carioca is pleased to announce Desde sempre o mar (Since always the sea), a solo exhibition by artist Mariana Rocha in building 17 of A Gentil Carioca Rio de Janeiro, opening next Saturday, May 24th, from 6pm to 11pm. Inspired by the vastness of the sea and the mysteries of microscopic life, Rocha dives into a universe where the boundaries between science, myth and art dissolve. The show brings together new paintings that move between figuration and abstraction, evoking organic forms such as roots, eyelashes, arms and membranes — elements that unfold as symbols of the origin and continuity of life.

In the words of art historian and curator Renato Menezes, who wrote the show's introductory text, “Mariana Rocha cheats the scale, and thus painting itself seems to become, to the artist, a way of re-equating the essential minimums of life. Particle and whole, cell and organism, drop and ocean renegotiate their orders of magnitude right in front of our eyes. It’s no accident that her research is focused on the sea: it was there, in the immense and deep vastness, that the simplest forms of life started to appear. But as always, the minimum is also the maximum: baroque, dramatic, mysterious and vibrant, her painting metabolizes the world in order to see, from its most intimate and obscure part, what of the most superficial it can reveal.”

The exhibition is open until August 9th, 2025.