Marlene Almeida (b. 1942, Brazil) is a pioneering Brazilian artist whose work unfolds at the confluence of art, ecology, and ancestral memory. For over five decades, her practice has been deeply rooted in the materiality of the earth – literally and symbolically. Since the 1970s, she has explored the expressive potential of natural pigments, particularly mineral earths and plant-based binders, collecting and processing clays from across Brazil’s diverse geological landscapes. These pigments are not merely tools, but central to her aesthetic, conceptual, and philosophical approach.
Almeida’s artistic journey is a lifelong research project that fuses fieldwork, craftsmanship, and poetic expression. Her travels – often called ‘expeditions’ – are acts of both geological exploration and intimate ritual. In each collection of soil, she finds a fragment of time, history, and place. These materials give rise to her vivid paintings, installations, and sculptural works, where the land itself becomes both medium and message.
Beyond technical experimentation, her work is a philosophical inquiry into transformation and impermanence, inspired by thinkers like Heraclitus and ancient treatises on art and alchemy. The recurring motif of “Terra” (Earth) in the titles of her exhibitions – A Cor da Terra, Fruto da Terra, Corpus Terrae, Terra Nua, among others – speaks to her devotion to grounding art in natural and cultural origins.
Marlene’s process is slow and meditative. Each colour she creates emerges from a deep engagement with matter: collecting, decanting, drying, grinding, and tempering earths to produce unique tones. Over more than 50 years of dedicated research, Marlene has collected and created a vast, vibrant spectrum of pigments derived from the land itself – a rich and nuanced palette she lovingly refers to as her “Museum of Brazilian Earths.” Her works retain the textures and chromatic subtleties of their origins, celebrating the land’s fragile power and chromatic diversity. Through her practice, she reclaims forgotten artisanal knowledge, questions industrial aesthetics, and offers an ecological and poetic counter-narrative to modern production.
Her dedication extends beyond her studio. She has led workshops across Brazil and internationally, generously sharing her knowledge to inspire sustainable practices in art-making. The pigments she offers are not only colorants but acts of cultural and environmental stewardship.
Marlene Almeida’s work is a rare synthesis of art, science, memory, and activism – a “rainbow of the earth,” as the critic Mário Schenberg described it. In her hands, colour is not only seen but felt; the earth is not only painted but remembered.
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