Marlene Almeida’s work moves between painting, sculpture, and installation, grounded in the expeditions she undertakes to identify and study soils. Since the 1970s, field research has formed the first stage in shaping her artistic practice. Her creative process unfolds in direct contact with the colors and textures of rocks and clays from different geological formations across Brazil, where earth is understood not only as material, but as language and poetics.

In the artist’s own words: “On my journeys, the relationship with the earth deepens in an inseparable way. More than observing, it is about entering the landscape, feeling its smell, its texture, and the almost infinite differences in its colors.”

The forms Marlene Almeida creates from these materials—whether on canvas or in her three-dimensional works—preserve the memory of the places where the pigments were collected, giving new meaning to the idea of landscape. This investigative and process-based dimension finds its synthesis in Museu das Terras Brasileiras, presented at the 36th Bienal de São Paulo (2025), an inventory-like work the artist has been building for more than five decades, gathering natural pigments from different regions of the country.

Marlene Almeida has held numerous solo exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, among which the following stand out: her first solo show at the Fundação Cultural da Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil (1979); Passatempo, Centro Cultural São Francisco, João Pessoa, Brazil, and the Brazilian Cultural Institute in Germany, Berlin, Germany (1999–2000); and Tempo para o Destino, Museu Brasileiro de Escultura e Ecologia — MuBe, São Paulo, Brazil (2013). Her group exhibitions include: 36th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2025); 38th Panorama of Brazilian Art, 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 — CCBB, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, and Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2021–2022).

Her work is held in several public collections, including: the Embassy of Brazil in Berlin, Germany; Kunsthof, Germany; Museu Nacional da República, Brazil; Burle Marx Institute, Brazil; and the Pinacoteca da Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil.