Marlene Almeida

Marlene Almeida’s practice weaves together ecology, ancestral memory, and a profound material relationship with the earth. Since the 1970s, she has created pigments from mineral clays and plant-based binders, collected through extensive travels across Brazil’s diverse geological landscapes. These pigments are central to her aesthetic and philosophical vision, transforming her art into both a sensory and symbolic experience. Her process, part fieldwork and part ritual, is slow and meditative, yielding a vast and nuanced palette she calls her “Museum of Brazilian Earths.” Through paintings, installations, and sculptures, Almeida allows the land to speak as both medium and message. Inspired by ancient thought and alchemical traditions, her work reflects a deep engagement with impermanence and transformation. Her exhibitions, often titled with variations on “Terra,” ground her practice in natural and cultural origins. ...

Founded in 2011, Carlos/Ishikawa’s program is dedicated to considered and ambitious exhibitions that offer diverse artists’ perspectives on structural, socio-cultural, and political questions. The program focuses on international artists with often wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary and experimental practices. There is an interest within the program of challenging the aesthetic conventions of conceptual art, and a focus on art that is able to operate on an affective, emotional level as well as a rigorous intellectual one. The gallery has offered many artists their first solo show, many of whom have gone on to receive recognition internationally. ...