Marlene Almeida is a researcher, sculptor and painter, whose fundamentally interdisciplinary practice combines literary, scientific and artistic knowledge in the investigation of an object common to her production since the 1970s: the soil. In expeditions to the Brazilian Northeast in particular, Almeida catalogs and stores samples of colored soil. The expeditions are guided by the artist’s audacious project: the Museu de Terras Brasileiras [Museum of Brazilian Soil], which aims to identify and study the colors found in different geological formations throughout the country. In her career, Marlene Almeida has also nourished herself with extensive ecological and political activism. She founded and directed the Centro de Artes Tambiá (Tambiá Visual Arts Center), where for a decade she coordinated international exchanges between artists, especially projects developed in association with agents from Germany.

From the 1980s onwards, Marlene Almeida’s work received attention from national and international art critics such as Walmir Ayala, Mário Schenberg, Jacob Klintowitz, among others. The artist has held several solo exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, including: her first solo exhibition at the Fundação Cultural da Paraíba, in João Pessoa, Brazil (1979); Passatempo, which traveled through João Pessoa, São Paulo, Brazil; Brandenburg and Berlin, Germany (1999 and 2000); Grenze, at Galeria Fórum, Berlin, Germany (2000); Tempo para o Destino, at the Museu Brasileiro de Escultura e Ecologia – MuBE, São Paulo, Brazil (2013); and, more recently, Veios da Terra at Flexa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2025), Acute Earth at Carlos/Ishikawa, London, UK (2025), and Terra Agônica, duo show with Walter Leblanc at the Fondation Walter & Nicole, Brussels, Belgium.

Among the most recent group exhibitions in which she has taken part are: 36^th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2025); Temporal Landscapes: Evolving Perspectives, Almeida & Dale (2024); 38th Panorama da Arte Brasileira, organized by MAM São Paulo, at MAC USP, São Paulo, Brazil (2024); ROOTED – Brasilianische Künstlerinnen, Vilsmeier-Linhares, Munich, Germany (2024); 2nd Jingdezhen International Ceramic Art Biennale, China (2023); and Brasilidade pós-Modernismo, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília and Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2021). Her work is part of several private and institutional collections, such as: Museu Nacional do Conjunto Cultural da República, Brazil; Pinacoteca da Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil; Núcleo de Arte da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil; Instituto Burle Marx, Brazil; and coleção Vilsmeier-Linhares, Germany.