One of the most recognized names in contemporary art, Daniel Senise returns to present a solo exhibition at Paço Imperial, in Rio de Janeiro, after 32 years. In “The Two Sides of the Window”, curated by Pollyana Quintella, the public will encounter more than 60 works spanning the artist’s production from the 2000s to the present, including previously unseen works.
The exhibition occupies all the rooms on the first floor of the Paço, with works arranged “by affinity”, rather than by series or chronological order, as Daniel Senise explains. The artist was closely involved in every stage of the exhibition’s installation process and will be present at the opening.
This is a rare opportunity for the public to immerse themselves in the universe of the last 26 years of the Rio-born artist, who has been based in São Paulo since 2022. Among the new works are four created this year, along with four others that have never left his studio, produced between 2024 and 2026. The exhibition also includes works from several of his well-known series, such as “Museums and Galleries”, “Books”, “Prodrome”, and “Biographer”, the latter presented together for the first time, comprising ten works.
Paço Imperial is pleased to invite the public to the opening of the exhibition “The Two Sides of the Window” on July 4, 2026, starting at 11 am. Bringing together more than 60 works by Daniel Senise, the exhibition spans his production from 2000 to the present. Curated by Pollyana Quintella, the show offers visitors the opportunity to follow recent developments in the artist’s trajectory, “through an articulation that privileges non-chronological proximities, highlighting recurrences and shifts within his practice”. The works on view belong to the artist’s collection and to private collections.
An artist of extensive production, Daniel Senise notes that he appreciates the premise of this exhibition, which brings together works that differ from those most immediately associated with his practice. Known for his use of surface transfers in the making of his works, the exhibition also features pieces that employ other materials and techniques, such as watercolors, photographs, and objects, expanding the perception of his work.
The artist emphasizes that he considers the first floor of Paço Imperial, entirely occupied by the exhibition, an ideal space to present an overview of his work. The rooms reveal developments and affinities, creating relationships between works from different periods and materials. Senise highlights that the beginning of the exhibition route, in the Antessala Gomes Freire, “functions as a synthesis of the exhibition, of what has taken place over the past 26 years”.
The works presented there include the wall transfer or “wall capture”, a process that has become emblematic of the artist’s practice, “Untitled (Guggenheim Museum)”, 2022, measuring 150 x 300 cm, and “Lucretia”, 2026, measuring 200 x 125 cm, in acrylic and metallic paint on fabric. The latter references Lucrezia Borgia (1480–1519), “a figure extensively represented in paintings since the 16th century”, the artist notes. “In this work, we see an image composed of seemingly random marks and interventions, framed as an artwork within a supposedly museological space”, he says.
Throughout the exhibition, visitors will also encounter a series of small paintings, Senise’s “little paintings”, experiments developed in his studio, as well as texts by Pollyana Quintella, the “expanded captions”, which comment on specific works or on each gallery environment as a whole.
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