From April 30 to July 11, 2026, Brazilian contemporary artist Ana Mazzei presents an immersive spatial experience titled “The Escape” at Nina Horvitz Galerie, blurring the lines between the physical and the imagined. Realized in collaboration with Martins&Montero, this exhibition appears not as a mere collection of independent works, but as an integrated composition where architecture, objects, and viewers are tightly interconnected.
The Intersection of Sculpture, Painting, and Time
The exhibition features four wall-mounted sculptures crafted from wood, painted bronze, and metal; six oil paintings on linen; and a six-minute video work. Drawing inspiration from the silent squares and elongated shadows of early 20th-century Italian Metaphysical Painting, Mazzei treats the gallery space not as a passive backdrop, but as an active element that shapes perception and functions as a psychological state. While forms suspended between sculpture and painting subtly intrude into the viewer’s space, the canvases interrupt the environment rather than simply framing it. The video work introduces the concept of “duration” to the setting, unsettling the stillness of the sculptural forms and transforming the exhibition into a temporal experience.
Bodily Awareness and “The Escape”
The concept of “spectatorship” sits at the heart of this show. The installation is completed by the viewer’s movement through the space; scale, proportion, and display methods are meticulously calibrated to heighten bodily awareness. Despite its title, “The Escape” points toward a perceptual shift rather than proposing a literal way out. In this ambiguous and mysterious atmosphere—which reveals that a space stripped of its functional certainty is, in fact, a constructed and staged structure—the familiar gradually becomes alienated. Mazzei maintains the tension between material presence and psychological projection, inviting the viewer to engage in “slow looking” and physical attentiveness.
Artist Biography
- Born: 1979, São Paulo, Brazil.
- Education: BFA in Fine Arts from FAAP and an MA in Visual Poetics from UNICAMP.
- Career Development: Her innovative artistic language has been shaped by prestigious residency programs, including the Independent Study Program at Escola São Paulo and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
- Collections: Her works are held in esteemed public and private collections, such as the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Paris), MASP (São Paulo), and S.M.A.K. (Ghent).
