Between literature, performance, drawing, video, and painting, Brazilian contemporary artist Paula Parisot has built a solid career from her hometown of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and her chosen city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Unafraid of an eminently eclectic approach, she experiments with diverse media, techniques, forms, and colors, and — still influenced by her beginnings as a writer — her body of work places special emphasis on the power of narrative and the multiplicity of both creative and everyday expressions.
Her new solo exhibition, I, All, represents a natural unfolding of her previous shows, Literature of the Self (BienalSur, 2021) and Mirages, Illusions (SNBA, 2024). Parisot charts a fascinating journey that goes beyond the individual to explore the interconnection between the personal self and the collective, delving into the complexities of the human condition and shared experiences, revealed in works full of colors and forms that move between abstraction and what could be intricate organic shapes from the natural world.
Throughout her career, Parisot has explored both personal and universal narratives. In Literature of the Self, she immersed herself in a first-person narrative, from early childhood through the free expression of the anguish, desires, and experiences of adult life. In Mirages, Illusions, she reflected on the illusory nature of reality, exploring the intersection between fiction and life, and beginning the observation that her individuality merges with the stories of the collective.
In I, All, through a cohesive narrative built upon the works presented in the two previous exhibitions, the artist highlights the transition from the individual self to the collective self. By presenting her works side by side, she demonstrates her ability to move from the “I” to “all” voices, revealing multiple interconnections and interdependencies that permeate us.
The exhibition offers an immersive and reflective journey. Its vibrant blues and reds, in large-scale paintings with minute details, invite viewers to explore the depths of the human soul and reflect on questions of identity, belonging, and self-discovery. It is a celebration of the diversity and complexity of our experiences, a reflection on the fluid and ever-evolving nature of the self.
As part of the program, although outside the exhibition space, the videos My Pandemic Self (2021) and DesConcerto (2023) were screened at the Casa de América auditorium, deepening the artist’s reflections on the fusion between the intimate and the collective.
