Maria Fernanda Lucena's solo exhibition presents her new series, "Paper Doll." The works were conceived through practices central to the artist's process: cutting and collage. She views these as playful activities that evoke childhood games, while also referencing the customary gestures of the fashion world—a cornerstone of her practice. A regular at the Praça XV antique market in downtown Rio de Janeiro, she sources 3x4 photographs to create layered images, stitching these unknown faces into costumes worn by pop culture icons and her own musical influences.
The oil-on-cardboard paintings are supported by human-scale frames, measuring 1.80 meters in height. The wooden ornament, which typically serves as a boundary, becomes an integral part of the work. It acts as a screen that divides and compartmentalizes, while also creating gaps and fostering the construction of empty spaces and echoes within a labyrinthine narrative.
"Lucena creates a game of identities. There is humor and a certain nostalgia in her paintings, the result of the memories she has chosen to stir. Her figures take shape through the way she has chosen to display them; they are passersby, yet they offer us something," notes exhibition curator Bruna Araújo.
