Detail of Ana Mazzei, Antechamber, 2018.
Photo by Alex Wolfe
Men and narratives, in their inseparable relationships, define Ana Mazzei’s interest. It is from this perspective that her work develops and grows.
For Mazzei, art, architecture and landscapes construct, in themselves, a fiction that connects them, resulting in installations, settings and objects. Some of the works operate on a smaller scale, such as the series of installations arranged on the floor formed by groups of small shapes made of felt, concrete or wood similar to the architectural models of old cities, amphitheaters or monuments. Beyond the formalist exercises, these floor objects invoke unidentified stories that suggest hidden and impenetrable archetypal structures. This dual movement, suggesting and retaining the symbolic value of the objects, is recurrent in her practice.
Her artworks are like pieces and fragments of myths, lives and fictions that are represented in drawings, videos, sculptures and installations. At other times, her works function as observation devices framing this vast repertoire from a specific point of view. Focusing on a widely experimental practice, the artist appropriates different sensorial materials, such as felt and concrete, connecting to the environments in which she works.
Portrait of Ana Mazzei by Jandri Angelo Agvilor
Ana Mazzei (born in 1979, São Paulo, Brazil) completed a BFA in Visual Arts at the Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP) in 2006 and a MA in Visual Poetics at UNICAMP in 2010.
Recent solo exhibitions include: How to Disappear, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2024); Sleepwalk, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2021); Drama O'Rama: Other Scenes, Glasgow International, Scotland, UK (2021); Vesuvius, Galeria Jaqueline Martins, São Paulo, Brazil (2020); Drama O'Rama, Sesc Pompeia, São Paulo, Brazil (2019); Is-Montage!, Carlos/Ishikawa, London, UK (2019); Antechamber, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2018); DRAMAFOBIA, Galeria Jaqueline Martins, São Paulo, Brazil (2017); and Ghost Studies, Almine Rech Gallery, New York, NY (2017).
Selected group shows include: Vai, vai, Saudade, Donnaregina Contemporary Art Museum - Madre Museum, Naples, Italy (2024); 37th Panorama of the Brazilian Art: Under the ashes, embers, São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, Brazil (2022); Da Humanidade, Museu Brasileiro de Arte, FAAP. São Paulo, Brazil (2020); Feminists Histories, São Paulo Arts Museum, São Paulo, Brazil (2019); Living Structures. Art as a plural experience, curated by Jesús Fuenmayor, la Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador (2018); Brazil. Knife in the flesh, a joint performance with Regina Parra, Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy (2018); Hands, Spells and Papers, La Galerie Centre d'Art Contemporain, Noisy-le-Sec, France (2018); 20º Festival de Arte Contemporânea Videobrasil, Sesc Pompeia, São Paulo, Brazil (2017); Theatre of the Absurd, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2017); Neither, Mendes Woods Gallery, Brussels, Belgium (2017); and 32ª São Paulo’s Internacional Bienal, Incerteza Viva, São Paulo, Brazil (2016).
Her works are in the collection of Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris, France; Glasgow International, Scotland; Museu de Arte Brasileira, FAAP, São Paulo, Brazil; MASP- Museu de Arte São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Nouveau Musée National, Monaco; Sammlung Philara Collection, Düsseldorf, Germany and S.M.A.K, Ghent, Belgium.
She lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil.
Natalia Golubenko speaks with the artist about her creative path and the multidisciplinary artistic approach she employs in her work.
Expect: a staged inquiry typical of the Brazilian artist who presents a fictional narrative centring a vanished ballerina.
Creating figures, forms, and props from a minimalist toolbox of wood, wax, paint, and found objects, Ana Mazzei doesn't create works so much as she makes stages out of them.
Ana Mazzei's Drama O’Rama among some standout pieces from this year’s fair in Paris.
The Brazilian artist's mixed-media sculptural works explore the power of enigmatic storytelling.
Hettie Judah's review on Glasgow International 2021.
Ela Bittencourt reviews Ana Mazzei's solo exhibition Vesuvius at Galeria Jaqueline Martins, São Paulo, Brazil.
From Song Dynasty porcelain to new painting by Ugo Rondinone, advisors from the APAA pick their highlight works from Frieze Viewing Room.
Art Basel debuted its digital platform, the Online Viewing Rooms, with 235 galleries showing over 2,000 pieces. Art Basel's Film sector curator Filipa Ramos shares her favorites including Ana Mazzei.
Gökcan Demirkazik reviews Ana Mazzei's solo show at Green Art Gallery, Dubai.
Anna Wallace-Thompson interviews Ana Mazzei about her recent residency in France this summer, resulting in the exhibition Hands, Spells and Papers at La Galerie, Centre d’Art Contemporain.
São Paulo-based artist Ana Mazzei discusses with Terremoto’s editor in chief Dorothée Dupuis about politics of spectatorship in her work, public space in Brazil and how art’s independence vis-àvis reality is actually what commits it the most strongly to the current affairs of the world.
Isabella Lenzi reviews Ana Mazzei's Espectáculo [Spectacle] (2016), a piece commissioned for the 32nd edition of the São Paulo Biennale.
Ana Mazzei's work is motivated by her search for other worlds and imaginary universes and by a need to tell and re-signify stories.
Ana Mazzei in Kiki Mazzucchelli's Profile of 2016 Future Great artist.
