As she navigates through different references, Patricia Leite seeks ways to give form to her memories and emotional latencies through a highly distinctive pictorial practice. Between the bucolic scenes of a journey and images taken from videos that caught her attention, emerge processes that lead to paintings formed by a rare combination of gravity and gentleness.

In her body of work, one can find recurring echoes and resonances of themes and styles rooted in art history — such as landscape painting and elements of pop art — which are always employed as tools to express intimate manifestations.

With a rhythm that balances abstraction and figuration, Patricia’s work deals with the transition from a solid state to a fleeting moment. On one hand, the use of large color blocks on the rigid absorption of wood presents us with imposing planes; yet nothing there allows itself to be fully or permanently defined. Behind each choice lies a desire to approach unique atmospheres and to explore the sensations that may arise from specific visual experiences — like standing under the sun of Minas Gerais, watching a samba school parade, or contemplating nightfall by the coast.

Awarded in art salons throughout Brazil, the artist’s works are included in the collections of: Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; Centro Cultural Cândido Mendes, Rio de Janeiro; Federal University of Minas Gerais; and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, in Vienna. She has participated in group exhibitions such as Parques e Outros Pretextos, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2019); Neither, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2017); Aprendendo com Dorival Caymmi – Civilização Praieira, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2016); and The Circus as a Parallel Universe, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2013). Her solo shows include Água Fria, Fondazione Istituzione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice (2025); Paisagem de Lenda, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2024); Lusco-fusco, Mendes Wood DM, New York (2018); and Olha pro Céu, Meu Amor, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2017).

This residency is a partnership with Mendes Wood DM (@mendeswooddm).

Photo: Isadora Fonseca

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Asuka Anastacia Ogawa spent part of her childhood and adolescence in Petrópolis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro — her maternal family’s hometown. In the years that followed, she lived in Sweden, London, and Los Angeles, where she currently resides. The cultural diversity of her formative years has had a direct impact on her artistic practice, which draws inspiration from the customs and religions of the various countries she has lived in.

The artist states that childhood memories — even those seemingly lost — eventually return to influence her creative process, resulting in a harmonic fusion of ancestry and contemporaneity. Her compositions feature androgynous figures with rounded faces and almond-shaped eyes that seem to gaze beyond the edges of the canvas. In her work, Asuka references, above all, her Japanese and Afro-Brazilian heritage.

Among her most recent solo exhibitions are Melinha (Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brazil) and Paris Plus, in the French capital, in 2024. Other shows include Pedra (Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, USA, 2023), Tamago (Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, USA, 2022), Feijão (Half Gallery, New York, USA, 2019), and Soup (Henry Taylor’s, Los Angeles, USA, 2017).