Maria Thereza Alves

Maria Thereza Alves investigates overlooked histories and the complex relationships between people, places, and the environment through a research-driven and socially engaged artistic practice. Her work often emerges from detailed interactions with specific localities, combining archival research, fieldwork, and collaboration with local communities, scientists, and activists. By integrating these perspectives, Alves uncovers narratives that are frequently marginalized or erased, bringing them into public consciousness through artistic interventions. A central focus of her practice is the long-term project Seeds of Change, which traces ballast flora—plant seeds unintentionally transported in soil used to stabilize ships during the colonial period. Through this work, Alves examines the ecological and cultural impacts of global trade, migration, and displacement, highlighting how human and environmental histories are deeply intertwined. Her projects bridge research, material experimentation, and socially conscious engagement, creating works that are both intellectually rigorous and visually compelling. Alves’ practice continuously explores ideas of memory, belonging, and the interconnectedness of human and ecological systems, offering viewers a nuanced reflection on history, movement, and place. ...

Founded in São Paulo in 2011, Galeria Jaqueline Martins is a space for research, documentation and presentation of contemporary artistic production. It proposes collaborative curatorial strategies that foster dialogue between different generations and different cultural perspectives. One of its guiding principles is the encouragement of research-oriented conceptualist practices characterized by critical, even subversive, approaches. Since its inauguration, the gallery has developed a special program around the investigation of artistic productions carried out during the Brazilian military period – more specifically from the 1970s and 1980s. It promotes a historical revision of processes grounded on strong intellectual resistance, audacity and commitment to art and which transformed the artistic practice in the country, but nonetheless were neglected throughout the last decades. By integrating research and practice that confront the contemporary scene by means of its exhibition program, the gallery encourages the revival of the debate that conceives of artistic actions as contact zones for the exercise of aesthetic, social and political change. In 2020 the gallery opened its second exhibition space, in Brussels, aiming to expand our presence in Europe and to develop a multidisciplinary program that will foster connections between our artists and Brazilian art practices in an international context. ...