A Pedra , 2025
Biography
Flávia Ventura (b. 1991, Belo Horizonte, Brazil) develops a practice that investigates the body as a mutable device for sensorial experimentation, proposing shifts in discourse and agency in relation to sexuality, gender, power, and violence. They hold a BA in Fine Arts, with a specialization in painting, from Escola Guignard (UEMG). Their work proposes the creation of fictional narratives that exist between reality and fantasy, engaging with abstraction to construct body-mental landscapes through painting and its expansive possibilities.
Drawing from the observation and critical reinterpretation of hegemonic pornography, their research operates within a critique of the “male gaze,” proposing displacements and inversions in regimes of visibility surrounding the eroticization of bodies. Naked cis-male bodies, or bodies traversed by gestures of penetration led by women, function as a discursive strategy to challenge normative imaginaries of sexuality, reconfiguring the meanings of penetration, whether physical, psychic, or symbolic. Their investigation extends to the inorganic dimensions of the body and to the relationships between nature and technology, configuring fields of erotic, aesthetic, and political experimentation. Earthy tones of natural and artificial pigments simultaneously evoke skin and transforming earth.
As an invitation to mystery and subjectivity, their work proposes a reflection on time and impermanence. The manipulation of materials is conceived as a ritualistic and performative gesture, in which abstraction, far from distancing itself from the body, acts as a strategy of openness that establishes zones of ambiguity by proposing bodies that flow across genders and merge with animals, plants, objects, and landscapes, dissolving hierarchies among these forms of existence.
Ventura lives and works in São Paulo. Winner of the PIPA Prize 2025, their solo exhibitions include the 34th Exhibition Program at CCSP (2025), and selected group exhibitions include Telúricos (curated by Ana Carolina Ralston), Nara Roesler (2026, São Paulo, SP); Inconformadas (curated by Ana Avelar), Claraboia (2026, São Paulo, SP); PIPA Prize Winners 2025 (curated by Luiz Camillo Osório), Paço Imperial (2025, Rio de Janeiro, RJ); Porvir – Piscina #1 (curated by Paula Plee), Gruta (2024, São Paulo, SP); Um furo no olho (curated by Tálisson Melo), OMA Galeria (2024, São Paulo, SP); MARP Exhibition Program (2023, Ribeirão Preto, SP); 20th Território da Arte, Palacete das Rosas (2023, Araraquara, SP); 29th Salão de Vinhedo, Centro Cultural “Engenheiro Guerino Mário Pescarini” (2023, Vinhedo, SP); 22nd Atibaia Fine Arts Meeting, Cine Itá Cultural (2023, Atibaia, SP); Sagrado Abjeto (curated by Alice Granada), UERJ (2023, Rio de Janeiro, RJ); Sindicato de Artistas, Massapê (2023, São Paulo, SP); Sangria (curated by Maria Silvia), FUNARTE (2023, Belo Horizonte, MG); Escola Guignard Degree Shows (2023, Belo Horizonte, MG); 18th Ubatuba Visual Arts Salon (2022, Ubatuba, SP); Questões de Fronteiras (curated by Renato de Cara), Edifício Vera (2022, São Paulo, SP); Mulher no Plural, ALMG (2022, Belo Horizonte, MG); Temporada de Verão, GAL (2022, Belo Horizonte, MG); Rua de Despejo, Kasa Invisível (2022, Belo Horizonte, MG); Mostra Museu, public art, diverse and virtual media (curated by Ana Carolina Ralston, 2021, São Paulo, SP); Mulher no Plural: Múltiplas perspectivas, ALMG (2021, Belo Horizonte, MG, virtual); Vestígios, SESC (2021, Palmas, TO); Ode ao Natal, Casa J Galeria (2021, Belo Horizonte, MG); Inverno Estelar, Espaço Comum Luiz Estrela (2020, Belo Horizonte, MG); Entre o isolamento e o contato, Escola Guignard (2020, Belo Horizonte, MG, virtual); Ações de Apartamento, Espaço Bananal (2019, Belo Horizonte, MG); 19th Internal Exhibition, Escola Guignard (2019, Belo Horizonte, MG); Desenho em Distensão, School of Fine Arts (2019, Belo Horizonte, MG); Arte na Luta, Alliance Française (2018, Belo Horizonte, MG); Traveling Group Exhibitions, Espaço Cultural Padre Eustáquio (2018, Belo Horizonte, MG); Proteja Seus Amigxs, Galeria quartoamado (2018, Belo Horizonte, MG); among others.
