BIO
Carolina Paz is an artist interested by the complexities of intimacy, learning through proximity, and tactile experiences, exploring concepts like substance, fragment, repetition, and affection across various mediums, including painting, video, installations, and participatory projects, with a focus on engaging with emotional and philosophical perspectives within present contexts. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally, in museums, galleries, and residencies such as the SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY; RAW POP UP, Miami, FL; Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn, NY; Virgilio Gallery, Baró Gallery, Zipper Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil; Goiania Art Museum, Goiania, Brazil; Cerveira Art Biennial Foundation, Cerveira, Portugal; National Museum Soares dos Reis, Porto, Portugal; Culture Centre Rector Ricardo Rojas, Buenos Aires, Argentina; among others. She is the recipient of the Funarte Visual Arts award. Her work is featured in the permanent collections of Rio de Janeiro Museum of Art, Luis Seoane Foundation, the Rio Grande do Sul Museum of Art, and Goiânia Museum of Art. Carolina is also an artist member of the A.I.R. Gallery.
Carolina is the founder of Uncool Artist, created in Brooklyn in 2018, and the independent art space Coletivo 2e1, established in São Paulo from 2010 to 2017.
She received a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences in 1999 and a master’s degree in Media and Knowledge in 2003 from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). She holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York.
My practice is deeply connected to contexts of intimacy, learning through proximity, and the longing for tactile connection that defines my daily existence and moments of displacement. I’ve created a small and open Brazilian school inside a big private American university, traded paintings for handwritten letters, offered pieces of thick small oil-painted panels as cakes, and asked people in a video and participatory installation in New York “How to taste as an American”. I’m interested in the nuances of places, people, time, and subtle atmospheres as I explore the concepts and tangible experiences of substance, fragment, repetition, accumulation, and affection. I like words, lists, seemingly random images, and composing through free association. To me, meaning is a fluid, subjective, and collective construction, ever-changing depending on its context.
Currently, I spend most of my time painting, but I also create videos, site-specific installations, and participatory projects to engage with and articulate my emotional, psychological, and philosophical perspectives.
Once completed, my pieces act as dynamic agents in service, activating spaces and igniting engagement. In my daily practice, I abstract elements from my internal state and immediate surroundings in the present.
Questioning and exploring interpersonal and micro-intercultural contexts and spaces lie at the core of my practice. Echoes of my personal and social past will always, in one way or another, be present behind every choice and gesture I make, paying attention to what unfolds in the present moment.