Belo Horizonte, MG, 1974
Lives and works in São Paulo, SP
Navigating between installation, photography, video, painting, collage, and drawing, Cinthia Marcelle develops her work around the conceptual systems that politically and culturally organize the world. Therefore, social data is central to the conception of her work, which often involves collective elaboration processes. Considering the different experiences of being in the world, the artist is attentive to the transformative power arising from the organization and disorganization of things, whether to question or confront hegemonic structures and power relations.
Cinthia Marcelle graduated in Fine Arts from the Federal University of Minas Gerais. She was the artist selected to occupy the Brazilian Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017) with the installation Chão de Caça, which received an Honorable Mention from the jury of the exhibition. She has participated in several international biennials such as the 10th Berlin Biennale: We Don't Need Another Hero (2018); 5th Lubumbashi Biennale, Congo (2017); 11th and 12th Sharjah Biennials: Re:emerge (2013) and The Past, The Present, The Possible (2015); New Museum Triennial: The Ungovernables (2012); 13th Istanbul Biennial: Mom, Am I Barbarian? (2013); 29th São Paulo Biennial: There Is Always a Cup of Sea for a Man to Sail (2010); 9th Lyon Biennale: 00s-The History of a Decade That Has Not Yet Been Named (2007); and 9th Havana Biennial: Dinámicas de la Cultura Urbana (2006).
Among her recent solo exhibitions are Blue Hall Annex, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo (2023); Disobedient Tools, Marta Herford Museum for Art, Herford, Germany (2023); Cinthia Marcelle: A Conjunction of Factors, MACBA, Barcelona, Spain (2022); Cinthia Marcelle: por via das dúvidas, MASP, São Paulo (2022); A Morta, Wattis Institute, San Francisco, USA (2018); Family in Disorder, Modern Art Oxford, United Kingdom (2017); Project 105: Cinthia Marcelle, MoMA PS1, New York, USA (2016); and Dust Never Sleeps, Secession, Vienna, Austria (2014).
She has participated in relevant group exhibitions such as A Clearing in the Forest, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom (2022); Obscura luz, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo (2022); Nakoada: estratégias para a arte moderna, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro — MAM Rio (2022); Crônicas Cariocas, Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro (2021); Pinacoteca: acervo, Pinacoteca de São Paulo (2020); Soft Power, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA (2019); Push the Limits, Fondazione Merz, Turin, Italy (2019); BRIC-à-brac, The Jumble of Growth, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy (2018); among others.
Throughout her career, Marcelle has been awarded grants and prizes such as the Future Generation Art Prize in 2010; the International Prize for Performance, first place with the performance Gray Demonstration, in 2006; and the Pampulha Grant in 2003. Her work is part of the collections of various national and international institutions, including MoMA, New York, USA; Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; Pinault Collection, Paris, France; The Royal Library of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark; MASP, São Paulo; Pinacoteca de São Paulo; Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, MG; Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo; KADIST and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA; and Vebhi Koç Foundation, Istanbul, Turkey.