The exhibition Fragments & Narratives continues the celebrations of the 7th anniversary of the Coletivo Contemporâneos. This year marks seven years of its journey. Collage became a part of the collective through the artist Giancarlo Diniz, who concludes the exhibition with an essential reflection in any moment of contemporary history.

We gathered ten artists around collage, a technique that carries in its essence the idea of resignification — whether of beauty and what enchants us, or of existentialism and the need to rethink our paths, record choices, and reap their fruits. In each fragment and narrative presented, we perceive the artist, the human being behind the creation, as if we could unravel their minds and share in their visions.

With each exhibition, I feel even more captivated by these enlightened beings who are the artists, and their tireless quests for expression. Check out the works of: Angela Pagliaro, Denise Lima, Fabio Alves, Giancarlo Diniz, Julia Barreto, Lúcia Russo, Maridea De Deus, Natália Gadiolli, Pris Romão, and Tatti Simões.

Lu Valença
Visual Artist, Researcher, and Curator

Preview

Angela Pagliaro

 The inspiration came from my own life, both present and future.
Intuition played a key role, allowing my thoughts to wander through the choices we make.
 

Title: Choices (Series)
Technique: Mixed Media
Manual collage, monotype, and acrylic paint
Dimensions: 30x25 cm (each canvas)
Year: 2024
Artist: Angela Pagliaro 

 More about the artist 

Angela Pagliaro is from Rio de Janeiro, with a background in business administration and a passion for visual arts.
Deeply in love with Rio, she often features the colors and mountains of the city in her paintings.
Alongside her work in finance, she took various courses in painting, screen printing, and fabric design, but it was a specific course in Urban Graffiti at Escola São Paulo with Loro Verz that drew her to mixed media and its many possibilities.
Two years of classes and meetings with visual artist Suzanna Schlemm refined her eye, observation skills, and drawing technique.
Angela continues to print fabrics, but her main focus is creating narrative art, telling stories through mixed media and the beautiful technique of collage.


Denise Lima

Title: A Day in the Field
Technique: Paper cut collage, watercolor painting, and oil pastel on canvas with stretcher
Dimensions: 80x20 cm
Art book cutouts that create fluidity in a sequence of scenes with three moons
Artist: Denise Lima 

Title: Sunset Among Trees
Technique: Art book cutout collage and paper cutouts on paper, watercolor painting, and oil pastel
Dimensions: 30x21 cm
Composition based on a tree cutout from Gonçalo Ivo's painting, where multiple layers form a forest illuminated by the sunset in the background
Artist: Denise Lima 

Title: Sepia Blend
Technique: Paper cutout collage and colored pencil drawing on paper, on canvas with stretcher
Dimensions: 89x28 cm
Composition of cutouts from preparatory drawings for Goya’s Tauromaquia series and colored pencil drawings of flowers and leaves on paper, creating movement of sepia-toned figures intertwined, honoring the past and memories
Artist: Denise Lima 

 More about the artist  

Denise Lima, a graduate in architecture from U.S.U. RJ, is currently a student at Parque Lage. In her collage work, she experiments with cutting paper and fabric. She showcased her pieces at the Open Studio of the "Collage as a Form of Thinking" course in both 2022 and 2023. 

Julia Barreto

Title: Everything You Could Be
Technique: Collages with paper, drawing, and watercolor
Year: 2024
Artist: Julia Barreto

This artwork was created to be the cover of my future book, which is currently in development. The book combines poems and illustrations, telling various stories in one, and more than that, the different sensations and feelings we may experience throughout life, and the various "selves" we can encounter. We can transform the outside world by being conscious of the many things we can become. The work portrays a mysterious woman – like the Hermit – who embarks on her search for herself, and once it begins, the warm colors appear around her like a portal to infinite possibilities of who she could be. And so, she ventures into the world (and her world), represented by the forest and its different forms of fauna, as seen in the collages. The eternal search for oneself begins.

 

Title: My Sea is Red
Technique: Collage with paper, sewing with writing thread, drawing, and acrylic
Year: 2023
Artist: Julia Barreto

Embrace me with your arms, but with your legs too
Wrap me with your whole body, your soul, and beyond
Squeeze me, tangle me with your passion
And everything turns red, my heart beating strong
I feel you, I evoke you, with a penetrating gaze
Like an octopus, you entangle me in an instant
Engulfing me from head to toe, I know
Embrace me in eternity, and I'll never forget you

Title: The Forest Celebrates Within Me
Technique: Collage with paper, fabric/lace, stamping, drawing, and watercolor
Year: 2023
Artist: Julia Barreto

Everything that blooms within me, I let flow, let be, let prosper. I go outward and root myself. If inside I am a celebration, with colors, textures, madness, I remain in a state of happiness, smiling, waving, closing my eyes, and feeling, feeling everything. Am I better alone? Living in my world, a world of music and dance, awakening freedom, with watchful eyes and a closed body, aiming for evolution, trying to find myself, and then I get lost, find myself, remake myself. The celebration continues here, even if out there it may sometimes seem dark. The celebration stays here, because everything will bloom.

 More about the artist   

 Julia Barreto is passionate about communication and various forms of expression, believing that art is a tool of the soul. She appreciates the transformative and creative power that art provides. A communication professional with a degree in advertising and over 10 years of experience in the field, she is currently also dedicating herself to the creation of her book of illustrations and poems. At her core, she considers herself a poetry artist, but recently she has been exploring collage classes and various other visual techniques to nourish her soul. 

Natália Gadiolli

 Hair in the wind... I mean, head in the wind... better yet, head full of wind! Wind, gust, poetry, agony... was I crying or smiling? I don’t remember, there’s no time! Here is life, born and given birth. A race! No, we don’t get forgotten, we just keep remembering so many things at once, that some of them go with the wind, and so, the mind, so overloaded with caring for others, gets unloaded... 

 Title: (Mental) Overload
Technique: Collage
Dimensions: 15x21cm
Artist: Natália Gadiolli 

 More about the artist    

 Natália Gadiolli is from Espírito Santo. She is the mother of Amelie and Heitor. An actress passionate about theater and the performing arts. She has been fascinated by collage since childhood, a manual art form that allows her to construct and deconstruct, assemble, edit, and re-signify. Paper, scissors, and glue are her favorite tools. Currently, she is in love with scrapbooking, another aspect of collage that engages in a dialogue with handicrafts and memory. 

Fabio Alves

 In this collage, I work with the idea of identity and self-love, challenges for those who do not fit societal standards. Here, I speak of self-love by touching my legs, atrophied by physical disability, by showing my crutch as an extension of my body, and by displaying parts of my tattoos. A scar is a mark left by life, while a tattoo is a mark I choose to carry. Both are part of my identity, which I exercise in the world through my gaze: the one that highlights me at the top of everything I am. 


 Title: Standard Body or Possible Body?
Technique: Collage with digital photography.
Dimensions: 47x80cm
Artist: Fabio Alves 

  More about the artist     

 Fabio Alves, from São Paulo, discovered his passion for photography by exploring urban and natural spaces. Initially using his cellphone, he refined his eye and, over the years, photographed the city's architecture, mastering editing techniques. In 2024, with the transition to a DSLR camera, he became closer to nature and created images he is most proud of. On social media, he goes by the pseudonym "O apanhador de cenas," reflecting his journey as a person with a disability in an ableist world. A psychologist and photographer, he sees art as a way to reclaim playfulness and as a form of resistance and expression. 

Lúcia Russo

 In this series composed of 3 collages, I present my interpretation of some phases and moments of life that we all have either already experienced or will still experience. 

 Diving


In an analogy to the deep sea, the more we venture, with or without fear, each at our own pace, the more we adapt to new environments and our own singularities.


 Doubt


A frequent and difficult struggle in many situations of life: should I listen to reason or emotion? How to choose between being rational or emotional? Is there a possible balance? 

 Loss

Every loss causes pain and sadness. It is part of the growth process. We must allow ourselves to feel these emotions and not hide them. Only then will we learn to accept and deal with these feelings. 

 More about the artist   

Lúcia Russo, from Rio de Janeiro, holds a degree in Business Administration from PUC-RJ and has always had an interest in music, drawing, and writing. After years dedicated to Statistics and Mathematics, she rediscovered her passion for art and specialized in drawing and painting. Oil painting became her main technique, although she also works with acrylics. Her work, influenced by Impressionism, Edward Hopper, and Malcolm Liepke, is characterized by vibrant colors and strong sensuality, depicting female figures in intimate and introspective moments. She uses her own photographic references to compose her works, always accompanied by music, which even inspires the titles of her pieces. 

Pris Romão

 Piece of Perfect Nature


Technique: Watercolor and collage on 250g paper
Dimensions: 21x29.7 cm
Artist: Pris Romão 

 Stripes of the Road

Technique: Acrylic, photography, collage, and gold leaf on 300g paper
Dimensions: 30x40 cm
Artist: Pris Romão 

 Tropicalia

Technique: Collage and acrylic on 300g paper
Dimensions: 42x29.7 cm
Artist: Pris Romão 

 More about the artist   

 Priscilla Romão, a native of Rio de Janeiro, developed an early interest in geometry, perspective, and art. She began her artistic training in 1999 at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, focusing on painting and drawing. With a degree in Tourism, she worked in events and furniture design before fully dedicating herself to art. She currently resides in Lisbon, where she continues her studies at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes. Her work, influenced by Fauvism and magical realism, explores color and emotion, drawing inspiration from spirituality, quantum physics, and neuroscience to stimulate well-being and the intuitive connection of the observer. 

Tatti Simões

 Dreamy Garden


Mixed media: assemblage on a wooden box lid with natural elements, paper, and fabric.
Dimensions: 20 x 28 cm
Year: 2021
Artist: Tatti Simões

My dream was to find you
I walked through the dreamy garden,
Leaving behind some longing, perhaps a home,
In search of the truth, I needed to move forward, to find myself.
Through your gaze,
I am a flower, I am wings, I am honey, I am a home,
I am love, a star, and the moonlight.
And you, always singing, enchanting me, planting, dreaming,
Rooting me.
Tatti Simões

 Best Journey


Series: Between the Lines of the Soul
Technique: Watercolor, collage, petals, leaves, and Ñandutí lace on Canson 160g paper
Dimensions: 35 cm x 40 cm
Year: 2023

The best journey is the one where we contemplate the landscape from within and from without.
Tatti Simões

Free Your Heart


Technique: Assemblage inside a wooden box, broken pottery
Dimensions: 18 x 18 cm
Year: 2021

I have always believed that conflicts are the foundation of sublime loves. I consecrated impossible loves and admired the "foolishness" done in the name of love.
In Gone with the Wind..., who could be more senseless than Scarlett O'Hara? To forgo living a great possible love with Rhett Butler, only to spend the entire film confused and suffering for Ashley Wilkes? But I understood her so well.
There was nothing more poetic than discovering your true love after you had already lost it.
Tatti Simões

Excerpt from the book Quebra-Cabeça do Amor em Quatro Estações, published by Editora 7Letras.

 More about the artist    

Tatti Simões is a visual artist, costume designer, illustrator, writer, art therapist, and facilitator in SoulCollage. Her work, characterized by its romantic and playful nature, explores the feminine universe, spirituality, and the connection with nature, using various techniques and materials. She has participated in collective and solo exhibitions, including "Modernistas" at the Casa dos Contos Museum in Ouro Preto. With a degree in Social Communication and Performing Arts, she worked as an actress and developed fashion collections inspired by literature. She also creates costumes for theater and film and published the illustrated novel Quebra-cabeça do amor em quatro estações (2019). 

Maridea De Deus

 Just in case... 

In this collage, I aimed to explore hesitation and the multiplicity of possible paths in the face of uncertainty. 

 Be the writer you want to be

A collage in which I seek to celebrate creative freedom and the infinite paths of writing. The mixture of textures and styles reinforces the idea that there are no fixed rules for creation.


 Upside Down

I conceived this composition to evoke a suspended time, where the printed words lose their linearity and intertwine with the symbol of the dry branch, creating a tension between the ephemeral and the eternal. 

 More about the artist     

 Maridea de Deus, a native of Espírito Santo and residing in Rio de Janeiro since 1972, is a visual artist, interior designer, and ceramist specializing in high-temperature ceramics. She graduated from Universidade Estácio de Sá and studied at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage under masters like Franz Manata and Luiz Ernesto. Her paintings, influenced by Gerhard Richter and Luís Áquila, explore vibrant colors and expressive brushstrokes, guided by an intuitive process of layering and erasure. Her works often incorporate architectural references, serving as a starting point for her artistic expression. 

Giancarlo Diniz

 The subtle line that separates the ardor of love


Technique: Collage
Dimensions: 29.5 x 14.5 cm
Year: 2021

A spray of water to soothe the heat at a show in the 70s, confronting a spray of pepper spray to burn the yearning for freedom and popular expression against the abuses of the government.
I chose the simple insertion, with a paperclip, to make it clear that this subtle line separating the two is movable and unstable. An eternal struggle of power and testing limits.
Are we more repressed these days, or are we more aware of the different types of repression?

 Who polices whom?


Technique: Collage
Dimensions: 21x29 cm (each)
Year: 2021

How free are we? To what extent do we have the power of choice?
Are we a free people as long as we do what the governments tell us?
Even when the government kills us, hurts us?
When the people rise and take to the streets, the government, which should represent the desires of the people, reacts.
It draws its sword.

 Smash Fascism!

Technique: Collage
Dimensions: 21x29 cm (each)
Year: 2021

It suffocates screams
Seasoning eyes and throats with pepper.
Who governs the government?
Who polices the police?
How long will we remain silent, supporting those who hit us, hurt us, and kill us?
How long will we alternate between sweat and blood on our faces?

 More about the artist      

 Giancarlo Diniz, born in Ubá (MG), graduated in Social Communication and developed an intuitive relationship with art from childhood. After exploring various techniques, he found his greatest passion in collage, blending Contemporary Art and Pop Art to create a unique style. His works, made with fragments of magazines, evoke emotional memories and idyllic landscapes, combining volume and depth with his own paper cutting and treatment techniques. Inspired by nature and everyday life, he seeks to transport the viewer to places once lived or dreamed. 

 Guestbook 


  Contemporâneos thanks you for your visit! Send a message to the artists of the exhibition to share your impressions of their works. 

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