Gabriela Machado | Ainda Bem, Atravessei as Nuvens
Luciana Brito Galeria is launching its 2026 programming with the exhibition Ainda Bem, Atravessei as Nuvens, Gabriela Machado’s second show at the gallery.The exhibition features a group of large-scale paintings shown for the first time. Produced between 2024 and 2026, they are presented in dialogue with smaller works throughout the Pavilion. The critical essay is by Amanda Abi Khalil.
Opening: February 5, 2026
On view through: March 21, 2026
Mondays, from 10 am to 06 pm; Tuesday to Friday, from 10 am to 07 pm; Saturday, from 11 am to 05 pm
Chronicles of everyday life, real and dreamlike scenarios, the temperature and brilliance of colors, and ordinary sensations – nothing escapes the sensitive imagination that guides Gabriela Machado’s gaze. The artist selects what most draws her attention and translates it into pictorial language. In this body of new paintings produced in recent years, she weaves together fragments of stories and memories with landscape scenes from her travels. These small occurrences – scenes or observations from life that may seem banal at first glance – gain meaning, density, and poetry when reinterpreted by the artist.
Unlike the works shown in her first exhibition at the gallery in 2024, the paintings in Ainda Bem, Atravessei as Nuvens are now more figurative, revealing a hybrid interplay that articulates not only the immediate perception of what the eye captures, but also the artist’s imagination and memory. A fantastical circus world appears in several works, including Marambaia (2026) and Ainda Bem, Atravessei as Nuvens (2026), in which the figure of the lion is depicted through imagery drawn from a childhood repertoire shared by her generation.
Other smaller-format paintings feature landscapes that combine sky, plant life, and sea, as well as depictions of objects and sculptures. Yet across all these works, the artist emphasizes luminosity and brilliance – elements that immediately command the viewer’s attention and convey a deliberately crafted atmosphere of lightness and mystery. In works such as Largo do Machado (2026), Luzinhas (2014–2025), and Veronese (2013–2025), Christmas lights take center stage. As the artist explains, this luminous effect is deliberately produced during the painting process: in a first stage she works with acrylic paint, then finishes the piece with oil.
The pink background seen in some works, such as Ginger (2026), was inspired by the color of fences surrounding construction sites. A further notable detail appears in some of the smaller works – a frame reproduced by the artist, which extends the painting while adding spatial depth.
