ABOUT RENATA
Bio
Renata Meirelles, a visual artist graduated at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado [FAAP], performs research and experimentation in textiles overlap between art, design and jewellery. With an original language, she has developed a constructive system that combines industrial and artisanal techniques, using laser cutting and new technologies while bringing back manual techniques. The artist develops collections made up of wearable pieces as well as textile objects and panels that reveal her work on another scale. She creates constructive systems that unfold into the works that are part of each collection. Cutouts and wefts the artist calls “needleless lace” and “wearable sculptures.” Her textile objects explore transparencies and overlaps that can be worn in different ways, a constant characteristic of her work. Her poetic features a fine line between precision and delicacy.
The artist has received awards, among which from the Museu da Casa Brasileira [Brazilian House Museum] and A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro [A CASA Brazilian Object Museum]. She has taken part in Biennials and her works have been displayed in jewellery and textile art exhibitions both in Brazil and abroad.
Renata is a member of Grupo Broca, which carries out research in contemporary jewellery. She was recently a member of the jury at the Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] in the Textiles category and has given lectures and done curatorship work.
CV
Renata Meirelles was born in 1964 in São Paulo, Brazil. In 1982, she graduated in Visual Arts at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado [FAAP]. She currently lives in São Paulo.
Exhibitions
2019
- TraMares, Um Recorte do Têxtil Brasileiro, within the VIII Bienal Internacional de Arte Textil Contemporáneo WTA – Casa do Brasil – Madrid, Spain – Curatorship: Renata Meirelles, Eva Soban, and Juan Ojea.
- Collectiva Meeting, International Exhibition – Galeria Collectiva – Porto, Portugal
- Vecinos em Itinerancia – Museo Municipal de Arte Decorativo Firma y Odilo Estevez – Rosário, Argentina
- Brazil Jewelry Week – with Grupo Broca – A Casa do Parque – São Paulo, Brazil
- Aquilo que Abraça – with Grupo Broca – Galeria Virgílio – São Paulo, Brazil
- Aquilo que Abraça – with Grupo Broca – MADE – Mercado.Arte.Design – Pavilhão da Bienal – São Paulo, Brazil
- Reflexão_colares – Casa de Pedra – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Curatorship: Miriam Mirna Korolkovas
2018
- Aquilo que Abraça: Joalheria Contemporânea Brasileira– CCBA Centro Cultural Brazil-Argentina – Buenos Aires, Argentina – Curatorship: Miriam Andraus Pappalardo and Renata Porto
- BID_18, Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño – Central de Diseño de Matadero Madrid – Madrid, Spain
- II Bienal Latinoamericana de Joyería Contemporánea – Theme “Vecinos” – Museo de Arte Popular José Hernández – Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Brazil S/A OFF – Bianca Maria Palace Hotel – Milan, Italy
- EnTransito – with Grupo Broca – Museo Juan del Corral – Santa Fe de Antioquia, Colombia – Curatorship: Francisca Kweitel
- Concurso Internacional de Diseño de Joyería Contemporánea en Madera – 8th Feria Internacional del Mueble y la Madera, FEDEMA 2018 – Formosa, Argentina
- 6th Prêmio Objeto Brasileiro – A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil
- Joia Contemporânea Brasileira – Reflexão_colares – KORU6 Triennial in Helsinki, Finland; Brazilian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden; ARgenTUM Gallery in Vilnius, Lithuania – Curatorship: Miriam Mirna Korolkovas
- Tanto Mar: Fluxos Transatlânticos do Design – Held by the Museu de Design e Moda [MUDE] – Palácio dos Condes da Calheta Jardim – Lisbon, Portugal – Curatorship: Bárbara Coutinho and Adélia Borges
- RE_TRATO 3X4 – with Grupo Broca – Alice Floriano Gallery – Porto Alegre, Brazil
- Itinerância BID_16 – Latin America
2017
- A Casa de Lá e a Casa de Cá, Moçambique Brasil – Premiere of the series “África” – A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil – Curatorship: Renato Imbroisi
- Brazil S/A with Plissados series – Università Degli Studi di Milano – Milan, Italy
- Territorio y Resistencia, Joalheria Contemporânea Latino-americana — ERGO Gallery – Santiago, Chile – Curatorship: Alejandra Wolff and Pamela de la Fuente
- JOYA 2017, Contemporary Jewellery Fair — with ERGO Gallery of Chile – Barcelona, Spain – Curatorship: Alejandra Wolff and Pamela de la Fuente
- Novo Mundo. Visões através da Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño 2008-2016 — Pauta and Velatura – Held by the Museu de Design e Moda [MUDE] – Palácio Calheta Belém – Lisbon, Portugal – Curatorship: Bárbara Coutinho
- RE_TRATO – with Grupo Broca – at the 5th MADE – Mercado.Arte.Design – Bienal do Ibirapuera – São Paulo, Brazil
- II Gift Project — a piece by Rob Burton transformed by Renata Meirelles; and a piece by Renata Meirelles transformed by Selcuk Gurusik – “Através” – Marmara University – Istambul, Turkey
- RE_TRATO – with Grupo Broca – Casulos – Galeria Virgílio – São Paulo, Brazil
- VII Bienal Internacional de Arte Textil Contemporáneo, WTA – Pequenos Formatos – Montevideo, Uruguay and Alto Puntaje – Punta del Este, Uruguay – Curatorship: Beatrijs Sterk, Silke, Lin Lecheng, Hiroko Watanabe, Biret Tavman, Máximo Laura, Antonio E. De Pedro, Enrique Aguerre, and Ricardo Ramón Jarne
- PIN 23 Joalheria Contemporânea Ibero-Americana — “Memórias Conectadas” – SNBA, Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes – Lisbon, Portugal – Curatorship: Cristina Filipe
2016
- Broca 1:11” — with Grupo Broca – SNBA, Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes – Lisbon, Portugal
- BID_16, Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño [Textiles category] – Central de Diseño de Matadero Madrid – Madrid, Spain
- Brazil S/A — Brasilidade para Todos – Università Degli di Milano – Milan, Italy
- “Roller” installation with Regina Silveira – Bolsa de Arte Gallery – Porto Alegre, Brazil
- 30th Prêmio Design , Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] — São Paulo, Brazil
- Retrospectiva 20 anos – Uma História de 20 Anos– A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil – Curatorship: Renata Melão
- TENET – Navegar é preciso – Casa da Cultura – Paraty, Brazil – Curatorship: Juan Ojea, Marta Meyer, and Renato Imbroisi
- Tudo Joia – Galeria Bergamin & Gomide – São Paulo, Brazil
2015
- Brazil S/A – Shopping Cidade Jardim – São Paulo, Brazil
- Brazil S/A – Università Degli Studi di Milano – Milan, Italy
- Mostra Design Têxtil– Cultura Bookstore – São Paulo, Brazil – Curatorship: Nadia Rezende
- RE_TRATO – with Grupo Broca – Casa E Visual Arts Gallery – Valparaíso, Chile
- “Roller” series with Regina Silveira – Uma – São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2014
- BID_14, Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño – La Imaginación Colectiva – Central de Diseño de Matadero Madrid – Madrid, Spain
- Brazil S/A, 100% Brasil – Palazzo Giureconsulti – 100% Brasil – Milan, Italy
- Arte, Design e Moda: Expansão de – Instituto Botucatu – Botucatu, Brazil – Organized by Silvia Sassaoka and Monica Moura
- 4th Prêmio Objeto Brasileiro – CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil
2013
- BID 8/10/12, Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño — Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – São Paulo, Brazil – Curatorship: Giovanni Vannucchi and Ruth Klotzel
- ENJOIA’T Prêmio de Joalheria Contemporânea – FAD Fomento de las Artes y Diseño – Barcelona, Espanha
- IDEA/Brasil Award – Museu Oscar Niemeyer [MON] – Curitiba, Brazil and Conjunto Nacional – São Paulo, Brazil – Curatorship: Joice Joppert Leal
- Modern Art Jewellery from Brazil and Denmark – Koldinghus Museum – Kolding, Denmark – Curatorship: Anne-Marie Overbye
- TENET – A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil – Curatorship: Juan Ojea, Marta Meyer, and Renato Imbroisi
- Walka Studio “Ancestral” Award, JOYA13 Contemporary Jewellery Fair – FAD, Fomento de las Artes y el Diseño – Barcelona, Spain – Curatorship: Valeria Vallarta and Jorge Manilla
- Wood Brazil/JOYA13 Contemporary Jewellery Fair — FAD, Fomento de las Artes y el Diseño – Barcelona, Spain – Curatorship: Miriam Mirna Korolkovas
- 27th Prêmio Design, Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – São Paulo, Brazil
- EspaiJoia 3rd Edition by the Anuario de Joyería Contemporánea – Barcelona, Spain
2012
- 3rd Prêmio Objeto Brasileiro – A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil
- BID_12, Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño– Central de Diseño de Matadero Madrid – Madrid, Spain
- Brazil now: Art Jewellery — Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School – Florence, Italy – Curatorship: Miriam Mirna Korolkovas
- Brazil S/A – “Brasil: Design, inovação e sustentabilidade – Um olhar sobre a Bienal Brasileira de Design 2010” — Palazzo Affari ai Giureconsulti – Milan, Italy
- Fresh from Brazil, NYC Design Week – La Venue Terminal Center Store – New York, USA – Organization: Associação Objeto Brasil
- IDEA/Brasil Award, Textile Design – Casa Fiat de Cultura – Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- Joias Contemporâneas: Brasil e Dinamarca – Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – São Paulo, Brazil – Curatorship: Anne-Marie Overbye
- JOYA 2012, Contemporary Jewellery Fair — FAD, Plaça dels Ángels – Barcelona, Spain
- Joias Contemporâneas: Brazil e Dinamarca– Museu da Casa Brazileira [MCB] – São Paulo, Brazil – Curadoria Anne-Marie Overbye
- TENET – Tecendo na Net – A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil – Curatorship: Juan Ojea, Marta Meyer, and Renato Imbroisi
- Sem Fronteiras / Without Borders — MIA Galleries, South Terminal Gallery – Miami, USA – Curatorship: Dr. Yolanda Sánchez and Zoë Melo
2011
- +55 Brazil Exhibition — The Gallery@ The Civic – Barnsley, England – Curatorship: David Sinclair
- 25th Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – São Paulo, Brazil
- Design Brazil – Design Flanders Gallery – Brussels, Belgium – Curatorship: Tulio Mariante
- PIN Anonimum, EXD’11 — Lisbon, Portugal
- TENET – Mostra de 50 designers têxteis – A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil – Curatorship: Juan Ojea, Marta Meyer, and Renato Imbroisi
- Top XXI Prêmio Design Brasil 2011 – Oca, Parque do Ibirapuera – São Paulo, Brazil
2010
- 2nd Prêmio Objeto Brasileiro – A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil
- 24th Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – São Paulo, Brazil
- Bienal Brasileira de Design – Centro Cultural da Federação das Indústrias do Estado do Paraná [FIEP] – Curitiba, Brazil – Curatorship: Adélia Borges
- Hard Twist 5: Chroma – Gladstone Gallery – Toronto, Canada – Curatorship: Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell
- pieceWORK – Gladstone Gallery – Toronto, Canada – Curatorship: Bev Hisey
2009
- Diálogos com Drummond – Casa das Rosas – São Paulo, Brazil – Curatorship: Waldo Bravo
- Destination Brazil — MoMA Design Store – New York, USA
2008
- 22nd Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – São Paulo, Brazil
Awards
2018
- Concurso Internacional de Diseño de Joyería Contemporánea en Madera – 8th Feria Internacional del Mueble y la Madera, FEDEMA 2018 – Formosa, Argentina – Winner
- 6th Prêmio Objeto Brasileiro – A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil – Special Distinction with the 3D collection in the Original Production category
2016
- 30th Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] — São Paulo, Brazil – Honorable mention in the Textiles category in the Product and Prototype modalities
- BID_16, Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño – Central de Diseño Matadero Madrid – Madri, Espanha 2014 – Selecionada Categoria Têxteis
- 4th Prêmio do Objeto Brazileiro – A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil – Honorable mention in the Original Production Object category
2013
- ENJOIA´T Contemporary Jewellery Award, FAD Fomento de las Artes y Diseño – Barcelona, Spain – Selected
- IDEA/Brasil Award – Museu Oscar Niemeyer [MON] – Curitiba, Brazil and Conjunto Nacional – São Paulo, Brazil
- Walka Studio “Ancestral” Award, JOYA13 Contemporary Jewellery Fair – FAD, Fomento de las Artes y el Diseño – Barcelona, Spain – Selected
- 27th Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – São Paulo, Brazil – 1st place in the Textiles category
2012
- 3rd Prêmio Objeto Brasileiro – A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil – Selected
- IDEA/Brasil Award, Textile Design – Casa Fiat de Cultura – Belo Horizonte, Brazil – Winner in the Textiles category
2011
- 25th Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – São Paulo, Brazil – 1st place in the Textile Design category
- Top XXI Prêmio Design Brasil 2011 – Oca, Parque do Ibirapuera – São Paulo, Brazil – Winner in the Fashion Accessory category
2010
- 2nd Prêmio Objeto Brasileiro – A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro – São Paulo, Brazil – Selected
- 24th Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – São Paulo, Brazil – Honorable mention in the Textile Prototypes category
2008
- 22nd Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – São Paulo, Brazil – Selected
Publications
2019
- Exhibition TraMares, Um Recorte do Têxtil Brasileiro – Spain – catalog
2017
- VII Bienal Internacional de Arte Textil Contemporáneo – WTA – Pequenos Formatos and Alto Puntaje – Uruguay – catalog
2016
- Anuario de Joyería Contemporánea – Spain
2015
- Encore! The New Artisans – Oliver Dupon – Thames & Hudson Publishing Company – England
2013
- Anuario de Joyería Contemporánea – Spain
- Anuário do Design Brasileiro, Roma Publishing Company — Brazil
- 2013 IDEA/Brasil Award – Brazil – catalog
- 4th Prêmio Belvedere Paraty de Arte Contemporânea – Brazil – catalog
- 27th Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – Brazil – catalog
- JOYA Barcelona 2013 – Spain – catalog
2012
- III BID, Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño – Brazil – catalog
- JOYA Barcelona 2012 – Spain – catalog
- 2012 IDEA/Brasil Award – Brazil – catalog
- “Um Novo Olhar Sobre a Bienal Brasileira De Design 2010” — Brazil – catalog
- Fresh from Brasil – USA – catalog
2011
- ARC Design magazine no. 73 – Brazil
- 25th Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – Brazil – catalog
- XXI Prêmio Top Design – Brazil – catalog
2010
- Barzón magazine, December 2010 — Story by Lujan Cambariere – Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 24th Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – Brazil – catalog
- Bienal Brasileira de Design 2010 – Brazil – catalog
Lectures given
2019
- La Valoración Del Propósito Del Hacer Textil – VIII Bienal Internacional de Arte Textil Contemporáneo WTA – Museo Del Traje – Madrid, Spain
- Seminário – Diálogos nipo-brasileiros – Poéticas têxteis contemporâneas – – Japan House – São Paulo – Curatorship: Adélia Borges
2016
- Broca 1:11’’ — SNBA, Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes – Lisbon, Portugal
- Processo Criativo — TENET — Paraty Eco Festival – Paraty, Brazil
2014
- Expansão de Territórios – Arte, Design e Moda — UNESP – Bauru, Brazil
- Design, Arte e Moda — IBOT, Instituto Botucatu – Botucatu, Brazil
- 10th Colóquio de Moda – Universidade Caxias do Sul [UCS] – Caxias do Sul, Brazil
2013
- “Velaturas” em ENJOIA´T – Barcelona, Spain
- Opening lecture of the exhibition Modern Art Jewellery from Brazil and Denmark — Koldinghus Museum – Kolding, Denmark
2012
- Processo Criativo dos integrantes da exposição Joias Contemporâneas Brasil e Dinamarca – Instituto Goethe – São Paulo, Brazil
Workshops and courses attended
2019
- “Técnicas Têxteis Japonesas” with Reiko Sudo – São Paulo, Brazil – workshop
2018
- “Panorama da Arte Contemporânea” with Danilo Oliveira – São Paulo, Brazil – course
- “Insígnias do Cotidiano” with Peter Vermandere – São Paulo, Brazil – workshop
- “Arte Contemporânea: Fins e princípios” with Danilo Oliveira – São Paulo, Brazil – course
- Fundição with Carlos Brito – São Paulo, Brazil – course
- “It’s a Jewellery Thing” with Lin Cheung – Santa Fe de Antioquia, Colombia – workshop
- “Filigrana” with John Fredy Puerta Molina – Santa Fe de Antioquia, Colombia – course
- “TouchingtheStillnes” with Jorge Manilla – São Paulo, Brazil – workshop
2017
- “Cestería Contemporánea” with Doreen Bayley – Montevideo, Uruguay – workshop
- “Fieltro – Cáscara y Caparazón” with Esther Weber – Montevideo, Uruguay – workshop
- “Como preenchemos páginas em branco… Obcecados pelo fetiche… pelo mundano…?” with Iris Eichenberg — São Paulo, Brazil – workshop
2016
- “Fall in Love with your own work” with Mia Maljojoki – São Paulo, Brazil – workshop
- “Face” with Ruudt Peters – São Paulo, Brazil – workshop
- “Electroformação e Gravação Eletrolítica” with Rafael Luiz Alvarez – São Paulo, Brazil – workshop
2015
- “Selvagem, mais Selvagem, Selvagíssimo” [Wild, Wilder, Wildest] with jeweler Sofia Björkman – São Paulo, Brazil – workshop
- “Contando Histórias” [Story Telling] with Tanel Veenre – São Paulo, Brazil – workshop
- “Simposio de Joyería Contemporánea En Construcción II” with Lisa Walker – Valparaíso, Chile – workshop
- “Fundição Osso de Choco” with Renata Porto – São Paulo, Brazil – workshop
2014
- “The Everyday: Diseñar desde la Emocionalidad Joyería + Fashion” with Mia Maljojoki – Santiago, Chile – workshop
- “Transitividade do Olhar” with Edith Dedyrk – São Paulo, Brazil – course
- “História da Arte” with Rodrigo Naves – São Paulo, Brazil – course
- “Vestígios e Memórias: Traçando o Corpo” with Dionea Rocha Watt – Universidade Estadual de Campinas [Unicamp] – Campinas, Brazil – workshop
- “Projetos Pérolas e Alianças” with Mirla Fernandes – São Paulo, Brazil – course
- “Objects Reloaded” with Betina Specner Garage Gallery – São Paulo, Brazil – workshop
2013
- “A Piece of Reality: Contemporary Jewellery as a Memory System” with Jiro Kamata – Santiago, Chile – workshop
2012
- “Simposio de Joyería Contemporánea En Construción” with Estela Saez – Buenos Aires, Argentina – workshop
- “Casa Corpo” with jewellery artist Francisca Kweitel – São Paulo, Brasil – workshop
Curatorship and Jury
2019
- TraMares – Um Recorte do Têxtil Brasileiro – Curatorship along with Eva Soban and Juan Ojea – Madrid, Spain
2018
- 32nd Prêmio Design Museu da Casa Brasileira [MCB] – Member of the judging committee in the Textiles category
Por outros
Adélia Borges
Renata Meirelles is a creative mill! We frequently meet. We live in the same neighborhood in São Paulo and share many friends. In each meeting, she always has something new to show on the screen of her phone. Sometimes it’s an idea in gestation; other times, entire collections already thought out in its multiple unfoldings. Likely as a heritage of the time when she was a producer and had to make things happen, the time between ideation and concretization is usually very short.
I’m charmed by the way she fully uses the materials. There is no leftover; everything is supplies. From an apparent limitation – the shreds resulting from cutting fabric, for example –, Renata makes the starting point for a creation. I’m also charmed by her free roaming among techniques, particularly by bringing together low and high tech; from manual to digital procedures, from laser cutting to 3D printing. And her free transit over different scales, from wearable objects for the body to those that invade spaces.
A good example of such expanded scale took place at the Bienal Brasileira de Design [Brazilian Design Biennial] held in 2010 in Curitiba, of which I was the general curator. I instigated her to create a piece especially for the exhibition, taking advantage of the high ceiling available. The piece, around 8 meters [26 ft] tall, was the leading attraction in the space, all while maintaining the delicacy and fluidity that characterize her work.
Of the small serial pieces, I really like the fact they’re reasonably affordable. I made a point of including them in the portfolio of the shop at the São Paulo Museum of Art [Masp] since 2016, when I became a curatorship consultant there.
If the only thing certain in life is eternal change, Renata Meirelles asserts that adage in her work, itself in continuous transformation without ever losing the unicity of its main thread.
Adélia Borges is a design curator, journalist and historian. Former director of the Museu da Casa Brasileira [Brazilian House Museum], in São Paulo, she has taken part in exhibitions in eight countries and is the author of 12 books. Adélia graduated in 1973 at the Escola de Comunicação e Artes [School of Communication and Arts] of the Universidade de São Paulo [ECA-USP]. Text written in 2019.
Clarissa Schneider
In Brazil, the interest in textile art and its expression elicits artists as Renata Meirelles, who produces a collection of sculptural pieces that seem to sprout from the earth, playing with elements, cutouts, and conjugations, in a paradox of technological entanglements – when she uses laser cutting –, or vernacular typologies – in the shape of weft ties.
Renata makes art with design and teases the eye, stirs curiosity, speaks without saying. And she makes wearable art.
Graceful and enigmatic shapes make the objects as desirable as a collector’s item and reflect a present-day challenge, which is to make something whose purpose is to give pleasure through what is beautiful and meaningful.
Architecture and design curator. Text written in 2018.
Luján Cambariere
Negative and positive. Background and subject. Container and content. The work of São Paulo-native Renata Meirelles roams between those opposites in an absolutely subtle, ethereal and exquisite game.
A visual artist by trade [graduated at FAAP], it was her husband in the industry who put her in contact with the possibilities of machinery that, albeit conceived for other purposes, was employed by her in the project of several of her works.
In the beginning, large works for companies and architecture studios – environments, furniture and decoration –, presented through her company Performa, until, a few years ago, she started focusing, after extensive research, on the most recent phase of her work, which has earned her several awards. Renata Meirelles received a honorable mention at the Prêmio Museu da Casa Brasileira, took part in the Bienal Brasileira de Design [Brazilian Design Biennial] in Curitiba – where one of her most imposing works, a 7-meter [23 ft] installation with several overlapping fabric panels, hung at the entrance to welcome visitors – and, recently, she held an exhibition in Toronto, with her works being sold at the Textile Museum of Canada, in addition to participating in the show at New York MoMA. A bet where she combines her more artistic and artisanal side with the industrial facet of her work. And she crosses borders of all types as her textiles not only dress the house, but also tattoo the body.
Journalist specialized in design and handicraft. Director of Àtico Diseño. Author of the books “El alma de los objetos” and “Master Craft.” Text written in 2011.
Miriam Mirna Korolkovas
Renata Meirelles, an artist who produces works that multiply at the same pace with which she talks, with which she moves her fingers when entwining the threads of a necklace…
From a piece of fabric, she weaves another; the leftovers, she turns into jewellery and into attire that dances with the body and on the body.
Her entire production is smooth as the wind and fierce as the storm.
In a pleasantly sized atelier, Renata tells her trajectory with drawings, mock-ups, experiments, readable documentation to understand the progress of her work. Each shred tells a story and keeps a secret in its color.
As a large web, her work is enclosing the world!
Miriam Mirna Korolkovas is a curator at A CASA Museu do Objeto Brasileiro [Brazilian Object Museum] and AJF Brazilian ambassador. Text written in 2018.
Mônica Moura
Renata Meirelles was born in São Paulo in 1964 and grew up playing with the elements and cycles of nature in the country towns of the state. The youngest child and only girl among two brothers, her family is of Italian and Portuguese descent. Her mother was an artist, a painter who, in 1947, took part in the 19 Pintores [19 Painters] exhibition in the state capital and influenced and encouraged her in the field of arts. Thus Renata, at seven years old, began studying painting and engraving, setting off her path in the universe of visual arts.
The involvement with arts would be consolidated with her college education in visual arts, enhanced by the experience obtained along with ateliers of different artistic expressions, particularly those related to working with paper and multiples, notably so engraving and serigraphy [silk-screening].
In trailing her artistic education, still a student, she was selected to attend a one-year preparatory course so she could work as a monitor at the 16th Bienal de São Paulo in 1981. This monitoring takes her into close contact with several artistic languages, works and experience along with major artists, especially Amélia Toledo and Regina Silveira. Such experiences were significant not only for her academic education, but also for her development as an artist and designer.
So much that the following years were marked by her participation in art exhibitions and design shows that brought together professionals in those areas. In that phase, from the exploration of paper and bookbinding, Renata Meirelles created diaries, notepads, booklets, folders. Hence, the artist kicked off her professional life marketing her creations.
The development of such practices and the commercial relationship with different companies made Renata enhance her capacity of creating original constructive systems in reduced working steps, which enabled great inventiveness and variety in product lines marked by expressiveness and originality in a constant dialogue between art and design, between creation and commercial market. In this way, she engendered a procedure whose essence was the relation between creation and production in collaborative processes as she didn’t have a factory, but worked with artisans and industries that made the components or parts of her pieces, meeting the demand of her creations, product lines or collections, usually made in large numbers. Thus, Renata learned to refer to her professional partners the jobs in which they had notable expertise. In addition, she fulfilled a requirement she imposed to herself – to maintain continuous production to those partners. That spawned her experience of seeking [and finding] diversity and alternatives for solutions in face of challenges and requests she encountered in her trajectory.
Trailing the professional path while exploring creative and constructive possibilities led her to an original language that resulted in several awards and national and international exhibitions that portray a work and road with 30 years of experience and with a unique production that wanders among art, design and contemporary jewellery.
PhD professor and researcher at Universidade Estadual Paulista [Unesp]. Text written in 2018.
Rubens Zacharias Jr.
Renata Meirelles’ work sets off from something that’s not represented. In her language, the edges, the limits, the complementary – shape/void, object/space, negative/positive – roam free. From the art of autochthonous peoples to graphical processes of design, her research starts at one point and moves towards another. Over this course, we notice in her objects something organic, a plane in expansion that goes from one field to another, breaking boundaries. In this way, her objects bring together plane and shape, expand to originate a living and organic space, a stage for sensitivities. In the several series of works, there is a thorough process that involves the transformation of an abstract weave into an organic line.
In smaller pieces, which she keeps in her atelier, the several lines that permeate her entire production are transmuting into objects with shapes that reveal the interior and exterior; they depart from the serial arrangements of previous works. The free choice of materials, actions and concepts makes her objects ever more organic, many reminding us of the body or textiles. Renata’s works can be articulated as pieces of clothing, fit the body as wearable creations, doing away with the space between observer and object. There is a tactile sense and, at the same time, shapes, lines and colors irradiate to our eyes.
Her works also comprise textures and qualities, require an observer that is present, involved with the magnetism of the surfaces; visible are the effects of several overlapping layers, the limits of appearance and similarity. The union between image and material, in all of its various aspects, is one of the key subject matters in Renata Meirelles’s work.
For most, the support of the creation can be the body, the space, nothing is discarded or neutralized, many of her works encompass face and reverse. It’s important to point out the very relation of the artist’s work with design: We see different lines that cross, touch, intermingle and are characterized as layouts in space. A reason to exemplify this organic line, based on her latest spatial works in which the relation of the movement of our bodies along with the work is activated. These installations work as spatial coordinates, belong to a line that is a bearing.
Besides this empirical baggage, her works speak of growth as that line born out of intention turns into structures. The structure plays a major role in her work, or perhaps it would be correct to say a post-structure, as the abstract [graphical] line of her pieces is organized to always migrate to heterogeneous structures, it requires the exterior where it is transfigured, acquiring materiality, uniting technology, body and space.
Researcher and visual artist. Text written in 2019.
Where to Find
Armazém do Marton
Carbono Galeria
Ciao Mao – Shopping Market Place
Debora Quer
Dpot Objeto
IT Design – Instituto Tomie Ohtake
Malba Tienda [Buenos Aires]
MAM SP – Store
MASP – Store
Obra – Ipanema
Zona D – OSESP
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I’m grateful to all people who follow my trajectory and have written about me and my work: Adélia Borges, Clarissa Schneider, Juliana Alves, Luján Cambariere, Miriam Mirna Korolkovas, Mônica Moura, and Rubens Zaccharias Jr.
To the assistants at the atelier who supports me in developing the work, following the creation and execution of pieces and of the whole process of sales, distribution, and participation in exhibitions, curatorship and lectures. A work that requires the dedication and involvement of all. Thanks to all of those who have left, but live in the memory of each piece, and to those who are today part and contributors to my growth and improvement.
To photographers Ligia Maria Eça Negreiros, for over 10 years of working partnership, Joaquim Ramalho, Gal Oppido, Eduardo Barcellos, Roberta Leme, Marie Ange Unbekandt, Camila Nicoletti, Jéssica Tanizaka, and Luciano Milano. To Joaquim Ramalho for the video and to Letícia Moura and Maria Mariutti of Conjunto 31 for the website.