ROME.- Born in Belo Horizonte; she lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil.
Ana Maria Tavares studies the strained relationships of the different components that build our society. In her multimedia installations, prints, sculptures or videos, the artist combines materials such as marble, aluminum, stainless steel, glass, and paint, resulting in a visual experience that is both sublime and meditative. Her works’ highly polished exterior belies a profound critical introspection of seemingly utopian realities that yearn to achieve greater resolve. Opulent natural scenes, architectural landscapes, areal depictions, and calculated use of poignant words are only some of the symbolic elements used by the artist to express an underlying dichotomy between the world we co-exist in today and another we should endeavor to build for our future.
Always fascinated by industrial modes of production the artist has, for many decades, produced pieces, which establish a clear relation between art, design, and architecture. Her thematics sensitively reveal the perverse process of modernization of the country, which has created a deeply rooted inequality.
Tavares graduated in Visual Arts at FAAP – Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (1982) and earned a master’s degree in Fine Arts at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1986) and a Ph.D. degree from the University of São Paulo (2000). She received a Guggenheim Foundation Grant (NY 2001), an Ida Ely Rubin Artist-in-Residence at MIT (Massachusetts 2007), and a Lynette S.Autrey Visiting Scholars da Rice University (Houston 2014). Professor and researcher in arts since 1982. Between 1993-2017 she taught at University of São Paulo, where she currently collaborates in the Graduate Program. In 2016, she received the São Paulo Critic’s Association Prize of Best Retrospective of the year with the solo show ‘In the Place Itself: An Anthology of Ana Maria Tavares’ work, at Pinacoteca de São Paulo.
Over her forty-year career, Tavares has participated in many exhibitions in Brazil and abroad. Her work features in some of the best private and institutional collections, and the pages of many publications.
