Mariana Palma’s work takes the form of paintings, watercolors, and photographs, in which colors and images of nature are explored through a variety of formats and technical approaches. In her paintings, which can reach monumental scale, the entire surface of the canvas is covered with complex chromatic patterns created through the marbling technique. Over these, the artist composes disparate elements such as tiles, drains, plants, flowers, and fabrics. Combining a precise rhythmic composition with a dramatic quality that evokes Baroque painting, Palma’s images at times blur the boundaries between the folds and veins of petals and foliage, while at others they disrupt fundamental pictorial conventions, such as the distinction between figure and ground, spatial planes, and the very notions of portrait and landscape. Reflections on temporality and vitality also emerge in her watercolors, photographs, and textile works, in which the artist explores the convergence of different organic elements.

Her solo exhibitions include A Delicadeza do Excesso, Kubikgallery, Lisbon, Portugal (2026); Através, Museu Oscar Niemeyer – MON, Curitiba, Brazil (2025); A invenção do visível, Cerrado Galeria, Brasília, Brazil (2025); The Vanity of the Caged Bird, Vistamare, Milan, Italy (2024); A pintura como verbo, Millan, São Paulo, Brazil (2023); Lago Interior, Teatro Municipal Casa da Ópera, Ouro Preto, Brazil (2022); Assim como os jardins…, Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2021); and Lumina, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil (2020).

Among her group exhibitions are Latinoamerica, La Fundación Canaria para el Desarrollo de la Pintura, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain (2023); MON sem paredes (2023) and Afinidades II (2022), Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brazil; 50 duetos, Espaço Cultural Unifor, Fortaleza, Brazil (2021); Abstración, Galeria El Museo, Bogotá, Colombia (2017); A Luz que Vela o Corpo é a Mesma que Revela a Tela, Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2017); Piece by Piece: Building a Collection, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, USA (2015); Trajetórias – Arte Brasileira na Coleção Fundação Edson Queiroz, Espaço Cultural Unifor, Fortaleza, Brazil (2013); and This is Brazil! 1990–2012, Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos, La Coruña, Spain (2012).

Her work is held in the collections of Fundação Edson Queiroz, Brazil; Institute of Contemporary Art, USA; Instituto Itaú Cultural, Brazil; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Campinas, Brazil; Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto, Brazil; Museu de Arte do Rio – MAR, Brazil; Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Brazil; Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil; and Pinacoteca Municipal de Santo André, Brazil.