Mari Pavanelli: Between Affection and Absence

Some exhibitions are meant to be viewed, while others seem to look back at us. With “Between Affection and Absence,” Mari Pavanelli does more than simply hang canvases; she opens up an inner space. A Brazilian artist born in Tupã and based in São Paulo, Mari has been building a unique body of work for over a decade, where nature and the female figure become emotional territories. Self-taught, having transitioned from finance to art in 2012, she found a foundational freedom in graffiti before unfolding her universe on canvases and walls across more than seven countries.
Her female figures are not characters but states of being, inner presences imbued with introspection, melancholy, and strength. They carry a lucid gentleness, born of what has been broken yet transformed. Their power is never spectacular; it is organic, contained, and inhabited. The heart of this exhibition lies here: learning to rebuild oneself without erasing the flaws, to be whole even in fragments. The paintings speak of a slow, sensitive process, where silence becomes living matter.