Beatriz Milhazes

Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes was born in 1960 in Rio de Janeiro. She is well known for her vibrantly colorful, kaleidoscopic collages, prints, paintings and installations which draw on both indigenous Latin American and Modernist European traditions. Milhazes’ rigorously structured, orchestral compositions are characterised by a sense of optical dynamism and energetic visual rhythms. These are punctuated by a recurring set of arabesque motifs inspired by an amalgamation of Brazilian culture, ceramics, lacework, carnival decoration, music, and Baroque architecture.

As with her paintings, Milhazes’ woodblocks and screenprints are dazzling symphonies of colour and shape that are filled with interweaving circular elements and lyrical abstracted forms. Her decision to produce prints was initially motivated by both practical and artistic considerations, but the artist has stated that she now views the craft of printing as key to her painterly process. She has remarked that while her early work used collages of cut-out fabric, it limited her to using existing images so she wished to create her own. Consequently, Milhazes established a method based on monotype printing, which involved painting a motif on a plastic sheet, placing it upon canvas and peeling it off again. As a result of this process, Milhazes was able to build up her paintings by layering her own unique images. The resulting works have a sophisticated depth and complexity about them, which is juxtaposed with the smooth surfaces of the prints.

Milhazes represented Brazil at the 2003 Biennale di Venezia.  Selected solo exhibitions include: 2014, Jardim Botanico, Perez Museum of Art, Miami, FL curated by Tobias Ostrender; 2013, Meu Bem, Paco Imperiale, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil travelled to Curitiba, Brazil curated by Frederic Paul; 2012 Panamericano, MALBA-Fundacion Costantini, Buenos Aires, Argentina curated by Frederic Paul; 2011, Beatriz Milhazes: Sceenprints, Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom; 2011, Beatriz Milhazes, Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland travelled to Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal; 2009, Beatriz Milhazes, Foundation Cartier, Paris, France. Her work is included in prestigious international collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; and Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA to name just a few.