3 min read · 11 Jul 2024
Marina Perez Simão. Photo by Bruno Leão
The Brazilian artist Marina Perez Simão paints abstracted, dream-like landscapes, typically on a grand scale, inspired by growing up amid the green hills of Minas Gerais.
Simão’s HENI Score—a unique artist sentiment index—has surged by 168% over the past three months, partly attributed to her strong auction sales, which have totaled $2.37m over the past two years.
Eye-catching sales include Untitled (2020), a typically vibrant painting, which sold for $352,805, more than three times its low estimate at Christie’s New York in May 2024. A small-scale work on paper sold for $15,000, just above its low estimate, at Christie’s in June 2024. Simão's paintings have been offered for around $165,000 at major art fairs recently.
Born in 1980 and based in São Paulo, she is co-represented by Mendes Wood DM and Pace Gallery.
As demand for work grows, so is scale of her gestural, semi-abstract paintings. In 2024, Pace presented a solo show of her work in its Los Angeles space, her first on the West Coast, which featured two of her largest landscapes to date. For Mendes Woods DM's 10th anniversary show she painted a 11-meter-long fresco.
To keep track of Marina Perez Simão’s sales and shows, see her HENI News Dashboard.
"'I was trying to trap light inside the paintings, between the layers or juxtapositions of colors,' Simão told Cultured Magazine. "
- Cultured Magazine