October 7, 2026 – November 7, 2026
Ph: Evelyn Sosa.2026 Residency:
Mariana Rocha
Mariana Rocha
MARIANA ROCHA is a visual artist and teacher who lives and works in Niterói, RJ. She holds a degree in Visual Arts from the State University of Rio de Janeiro and a master's degree in Visual Arts from the Postgraduate Program in Arts at the same institution. Her works are found at the intersections and the relations between drawing and painting; humans and animals; the body and the cosmos.
She held the solo exhibitions Restless Skin (2025) at Centro Cultural São Paulo; It has always been the sea (2025), at A Gentil Carioca gallery, Rio de Janeiro; Seeing in dark water (2023) and To investigate the sea I needed to cross the skin (2021), at HOA Galeria, in São Paulo. She participated in the group shows Once upon a time: Visions of the sky and the Earth, Pinacoteca de São Paulo (2024–2025); Mirrors of living water, Solar dos Abacaxis, Rio de Janeiro (2024); Dos Brasis – Art and Black Thought – SESC Belenzinho (SP) and SESC Quitandinha (RJ), in 2023–2024; Possible Agreements, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels, BE (2022), Living under fire, Federal Justice Cultural Center, Rio de Janeiro (2019), Clues, Imperial Palace, Rio de Janeiro/RJ (2018) and CAIXA Biennial Exhibition of New Artists – Itinerant (2015).
About Mariana Rocha’s work
Mariana Rocha’s paintings draw inspiration from forms observed and imagined beneath the water’s surface. Moving between microscopic organisms and expansive ocean environments, her canvases evoke cilia, membranes, tentacles, cells, and other fluid structures without resolving fully into either figuration or abstraction. Built through accumulated layers of oil pastel, the works suggest marine life as something continually forming, adapting, and responding to its surroundings.
Exhibition Artworks
Mariana Rocha, O eterno gotejar, 2024. Acrylic, oil stick, and oil pastel on canvas. 90 1/2 x 68 1/2 in, Photo: Renato Mangolin.
Mariana Rocha, Uma gota guarda os segredos, 2025. Acrylic, oil pastel and oil stick on canvas. 63 3/8 x 103 1/2 x 1 3/8 in. Courtesy of Mariana Rocha and A Gentil Carioca. Photo: Pedro Agilson.
Mariana Rocha, Nácar, 2025. Acrylic, oil pastel and oil stick on canvas. 41 3/8 x 63 3/8 x 1 3/8 in. Courtesy of Mariana Rocha and A Gentil Carioca. Photo: Pedro Agilson.
Mariana Rocha, Verter água pelo invólucro da noite, 2025. Acrylic, oil pastel and oil stick on canvas, 45 5/8 x 68 1/8 in. Courtesy of Mariana Rocha and A Gentil Carioca. Photo: Pedro Agilson.
Mariana Rocha, Dentro de uma supernova, 2026. Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas, 31 1/2 x 47 1/4 x 1 5/8 in. Courtesy of Mariana Rocha and A Gentil Carioca. Photo: Pedro Agilson.
About the Open Studio
Photos courtesy of El Espacio 23, Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Miami. By Evelyn Sosa.