Statement
My work is about the passage of time and daily rituals, evolving over months and years. My gridded paintings expand infinitely, with each one contributing to a larger body of work that can be experienced both individually and as a collective whole. Having lived in over ten cities across continents, my peripatetic upbringing deeply informs my practice. Cities, both ancient and modern, with their intricate systems and urban landscapes, are my primary source of inspiration. At its core, my work is about the tension between order and chaos. This search for stability and a sense of "home" is a recurring theme in my art, where I strive to find coherence through the interplay of form and memory.
Drawing on my architectural background, I am investigating spatial and formal dynamics. A hand-drawn grid underlies each piece, anchoring the geometries layered above. Watercolor offers lightness and transparency, subtly exposing the underlying pencil markings, which contrasts with the opaque, bold presence of gouache. The color palettes are drawn from cities of my past; the colors shift with the seasons and evolve with my memories.
My list of references includes artists, architects, and writers. Brazilian Neoconcrete artists Lygia Pape and Hélio Oiticica are an important influence for my geometric and color explorations. Josef Albers' Homage to the Square resonates as a serial project. Like Agnes Martin, I explore the grid as both structure and poetry. Zarina Hashmi’s exploration of "home" and Rem Koolhaas' City of the Captive Globe inspire my reflections on belonging and the contemporary city. Aldo Rossi’s writings on the city as a collective repository of experience inform my search for memory and place.
I am constructing a personal visual language that lives in the borders between stability and transformation, time and memory.
Bio
Letícia (b. 1986 Curitiba, Brazil) is an artist, architect, writer, and educator based in Brooklyn, New York. She received a Master in Architecture from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College. Her artwork has been exhibited at Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, 411 Gallery, Pratt School of Architecture Gallery, and at the Center for Architecture. She completed a residency at Further On Artist-in-Residence program in Amagansett, New York. She has taught architectural studio and drawing courses at Pratt Institute and Barnard College. Her writing has appeared in The Architect's Newspaper, PLAT Journal, the New York Review of Architecture, and Hyperallergic, among others.
Curriculum Vitae
Born in 1986 in Curitiba, Brazil
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York
Master of Architecture, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2011
Bachelor of Arts, Barnard College, New York, NY, 2008
Shows
2024 Fearless Watercolors Group Show, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn
2024 The Power of Abstraction Online Group Show, Site: Brooklyn
2021 Small Works Group Show, 440 Gallery, Brooklyn
2021 Online Solo Show, Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Brooklyn
2018 Small Works Group Show, 440 Gallery, Brooklyn
2012 “16 Squares: 4 Capital Cities in Portugal and Brazil,” Solo Show, Barnard College, New York
Publications & Lectures
2022 Book Review of Lina Bo Bardi: Material Ideologies (published by Princeton University Press) "Ahead of Her Time: A new book about Lina Bo Bardi showcases recent engagements with the architect’s all-inclusive work," in The Architect's Newspaper
2021 "Ballet Ditches Theater, Embraces City," in the New York Review of Architecture
2020 "Pedregulho and Carmen Portinho: Pioneer of Brazilian Modernism," in Plat 9.0 Commit
2020 Featured in "A View from the Easel During Times of Quarantine," in Hyperallergic
2019 "Plasticity and Influence in 1950s Brazilian Art and Architecture," in Plat 8.0 Simplicity
2018 "Sketches from a Magical, Multimedia Opera set in a Soaring Cathedral," Hyperallergic
2017 "Winding Paths and Swooping Walls Create an Oasis in London," Hyperallergic
2017 "A Death-Plagued Gilded Age Ballroom, Recreated on the Edge of Central Park," Hyperallergic
2017 "The Hollow Symbolism of Jeff Koons’s Blow-Up Ballerina," Hyperallergic
2017 "Mourning the US Presidency with a Raucous Faux Funeral," Hyperallergic
2017 "The Transporting, Tactile Pleasures of Porcelain," Hyperallergic
2016 "The Abstract Gardens, Both Painted and Built, of a Brazilian Modernist," Hyperallergic
2016 "Pondering and Painting Giorgio Morandi’s Precise Compositions," Hyperallergic
2014 “On Edge: 4 Squares,” lecture at Americas Latino Eco Festival, Boulder, CO.
2013 “Brasília,” lecture at Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurter Buchmesse, with João Almino
2012 “16 Squares: 4 Capital Cities in Portugal and Brazil,” lecture at GSAPP Studio-X Rio