“Improbable but not impossible” is how Brazilian artist Ana Elisa Egreja describes the unexpected companions in her vibrant still lifes. Combining the architectural motifs, animals, and fare common in her native São Paulo with elements from abroad, Egreja positions domestic spaces as sites of change, where migration and cross-cultural pollination come to bear.
In a new suite of 15 oil paintings, the artist draws on the long tradition of Dutch Golden Age still lifes alongside the contrived qualities of collage. Tablescapes filled with fresh flowers and shiny produce also contain cellophane-wrapped snacks and canned goods. Egreja acknowledges flight as a rich symbol of freedom and migration, and birds swirl overhead and perch atop the uncanny objects. There’s also a pair of window pieces, blanketed in 24-karat gold leaf and decorative wrought grilles, which serve as an interstitial spot for the winged creatures to pause as they move between interior and exterior.
Egreja’s focus on bridging these divides emerges in her renditions of sunsets, too, with their bold gradients rippling from crimson to amber across living spaces. This glowing feature backdrops both “Interior with a Jaguar and Sun Conure,” in which a forlorn feline lounges on an Art Deco sofa, and “Interior with Five Cats at Sunset.” The latter also contains a sculptural element as the vibrant light streams through a beaded curtain mounted to the painting’s edge.
Taking a magical realist approach to migration, Egreja questions the hard boundaries we perceive between private and public space, wildness and domesticity, as well as international borders. She also renders these lines illegible to our non-human counterparts, nodding to an ongoing organic exchange between seemingly disparate entities.
The works shown here are part of the artist’s first solo exhibition in the U.S., titled The Flight of Color, which runs from July 16 to September 5 at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco. Explore more of the artist’s practice on Instagram.
