LONDON.- Pace will present a solo booth of new paintings by Brazilian artist Marina Perez Sim鉶 at Frieze London 2026. Marking a novel direction in the artist’s practice, the body of paintings on view explores the perceptual possibilities of color through three distinct spectrums of magenta, blue, and gray.
Known for her work across painting, watercolor, installation, and drawing, Perez Sim鉶 merges interior and exterior landscapes in abstract, undulating compositions alive with movement, color, and light. In her paintings for Frieze London, she activates subtle shifts in tone to create works that change with the viewer’s movement and perspective, at times revealing unexpected variations in hue and temperature. Though they are more focused in chromatic scope than her previous works, as Perez Sim鉶 describes, “they are not really monochromes. Instead, I worked with families of blues, grays, and pinks so that each painting behaves as though it contains a full palette.”
Pace’s presentation will extend beyond the conventions of the traditional art fair booth, conceived instead as an immersive installation within a bespoke architectural environment. Creating a sense of contemplation around the works, the installation invites visitors into a quiet, intimate encounter with the paintings, which Perez Sim鉶 describes as each containing its own complete environment.
“The color groups have very different energies, both compositionally and atmospherically, each governed by its own particular conditions,” Perez Sim鉶 says. Across the three groups, she is interested in what she calls “the alchemy” of color and its capacity to transform in relation to what surrounds it, informed by her research into color theory. Perez Sim鉶 found inspiration for this body of work in NASA’s discovery of the pink planet GJ 504 b, a gas giant several times the mass of Jupiter and shrouded in salt clouds. In her words, her new paintings become “vague descriptions of strange worlds.”
Engaging a range of tints, the magenta paintings move away from the bubblegum pinks of popular culture toward pigments found in nature. Encompassing ultramarine, turquoise, Manganese blue, and more, the blue works explore how neighboring colors can radically shift the perception of a hue. The grey paintings combine these approaches, incorporating subtle variations of yellow and ochre. Through these chromatic investigations, Perez Sim鉶 expands her exploration of perception, demonstrating how color can generate space, atmosphere, and emotional resonance.
Marina Perez Sim鉶 (b. 1980, Vit髍ia, Brazil) has developed a working process rooted in the accumulation and juxtaposition of memories and images. Combining personal experiences with multiple references, which she filters through pictorial means that defy predefined language, Sim鉶 integrates thematic density with delicate treatment in a practice that encompasses painting, watercolor, textiles, and drawing.
Embracing “painting where words fail,” the artist produces works alive with movement, color, and light. She merges interior and exterior landscapes, composing visual journeys that traverse the abstract and the nebulous as well as visions and memories. Sim鉶 often draws from natural and geographical phenomena, using layers of paint to capture the shifting light over land and seascapes as well as sources of metaphysical light rooted in place, memory, and process. Beginning with sketches, which she develops into watercolors, the artist slowly builds up the structures that form the basis of her paintings. Each series is loosely interconnected, with the works existing both independently and as part of a larger network.
Important solo exhibitions of Sim鉶’s work include Marina Perez Sim鉶: Our dog-eyes, Mendes Wood DM, S鉶 Paulo (2018); Marina Perez Sim鉶: 蓈eils Maritimes, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2020–21); Marina Perez Sim鉶: Observatory, Sifang Museum, Nanjing, China (2021–22); Marina Perez Sim鉶: 5 Paintings, Mendes Wood DM, S鉶 Paulo (2022); Marina Perez Sim鉶: Onda, Pace Gallery, London (2022); Marina Perez Sim鉶: Watercolors, Cahiers d’Art, Paris (2022–23); Marina Perez Sim鉶, Villa Era, Vigliano Biellese, Italy (2023); Marina Perez Sim鉶: Solanaceae, Pace Gallery, Los Angeles (2024); Marina Perez Sim鉶: Diffusion, Mendes Wood DM, Paris (2024); Marina Perez Sim鉶: ZWIELICHT, G2 Kunsthalle, Leipzig, Germany (2024–25); Marina Perez Sim鉶: Echoes, Cahiers d'Art, Paris (2025); and Marina Perez Sim鉶: Diapas鉶, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, S鉶 Paulo (2025).
Sim鉶’s work is held in numerous public collections worldwide, including the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York; Deji Art Museum, Nanjing, China; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Long Museum, Shanghai; Mus閑 d'art moderne et contemporain de Saint-蓆ienne M閠ropole, France; P閞ez Art Museum, Miami; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona; and the Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh, among others. She lives and works in S鉶 Paulo.
