The works by Marina Rheingantz presented in the exhibition Rodamoinho, curated by Alberto Salvadori, appear as viscous, opalescent and impalpable panoramas. The paintings allude to an extremely synthetic form of figuration, the result of a personal reworking of landscape painting. In her canvases, nature is partially concealed from view. The places of childhood and the flat territories of Araraquara, Rheingantz’s native region, undergo a process of decantation within the artist’s retina and memory.
Marina Rheingantz, “Afresco”, 2025, oil on canvas, 210 x 300 cm, courtesy the artist and ICA Milano
Through the contrast between atmospheric veils and dense islands of matter, the painting’s sensory and visual qualities are revealed. The surfaces display a stratification with a geological feature, evoking clay-like, brackish and alkaline substances. Rheingantz works with dense layers and rich impastos, seeking both tridimensionality and chromatic naturalness. In her canvases, the composition yields to the physicality of paint. The horizon dissolves, and the vision is transformed into epiphany. The result, as we can see in Sand Storm (2025) and Afresco (2025), is the production of unsettling yet compelling landscapes in which the eye becomes lost, aided by the large scale of the works frequently used by Rheingantz. Through the contrast of tone, thickness, light and texture, as well as through the formulation of an ethereal and fantastical topology, Rheingantz uncovers the plastic architecture of the sublime. Within the painterly weave, the eye discerns slender shrubs, imaginary marshlands, fragile ecosystems, and suspended microcosms. Landscape painting becomes the specter of the artist’s emotions, while nature’s turbulence turns into the site of aesthetic vertigo. The surface of the canvas is a space of introspection and impression.
“Marina Rheingantz. Rodamoinho”, installation view, curated by Alberto Salvadori. Ph. credits Andrea Rossetti Archive, courtesy Fondazione ICA Milano and the artist
In Rheingantz’s works one can outline the deconstruction of the image found in late Monet, as well as the atmospheric rendering of Impression, Soleil Levant (1872). In Carrapicho (2025), the fairytale-like enchantment and chromatic palette recall the textures of Peter Doig’s works. The elegant touches of color in Bouquet (2025), clearly distinguished from the diluted powder-pink background, evoke through their painterly refinement certain examples by De Pisis. The monumental yet intimate language developed by Rheingantz, capable of translating the feeling of landscape into images, lends itself to dialogue with works by Joan Mitchell, such as Evening on 73rd Street (1957), and Helen Frankenthaler. In this case, the comparison focuses on paintings from the 1970s and 1980s, including Dream Walk Red (1978), Carousel (1979), Cathedral (1982), and Grey Fireworks (1982).
Marina Rheingantz, “Bouquet”, 2025, oil on canvas, 130 x 150 cm, ph. Eduardo Ortega, courtesy the artist and ICA Milano
The vibratory mark, combined with Rheingantz’s tendency to work the canvas through clumps and superimposed layers of color, recalls the large-scale works of Cy Twombly, such as Bay of Naples (1960), where chromatic agglomerations and delicate graphic traces emerge from a milky ground. The two artists share a Romantic root, which in Rheingantz’s case leads toward landscape painting, while in Twombly’s work it derives from the legacy of Abstract Expressionism. Both engage in a mapping of memory: Twombly in a material-scriptural sense, Rheingantz by entrusting memory to its plastic-figurative consistency. In the bidimensional form of the tapestry, the elaborate chromatic pattern developed by the Brazilian artist opens up a comparison with the stratifications produced by Clyfford Still, for example in PH-960 (1960).
Marina Rheingantz, “Maritaca”, 2025, oil on canvas, 250 x 370 cm, ph. Eduardo Ortega, courtesy the artist and ICA Milano
Even more than in Medusa (2025), it is in the rooms on the upper floor that Rheingantz’s textile work truly surprises the visitor. The fabric is woven according to highly elaborate jacquard structures with vegetal motifs. References to the frescoes of ancient Roman domus, to the papal chambers of Avignon, and to the refined medieval horti conclusi lend Rheingantz’s work a value that is not only visual but also architectural. The brushstroke becomes structure. The thread allows the artist to deconstruct spontaneous touches of color into mechanical actions.
“Marina Rheingantz. Rodamoinho”, installation view, curated by Alberto Salvadori. Ph. credits Andrea Rossetti Archive, courtesy Fondazione ICA Milano and the artist
If in the painted works a decelerated temporality seems to prevail, dictated by a space in which things sink or appear distant, like a mirage, the transition to the four dimensions of architecture adds to Rheingantz’s project the visionary potential of the encounter between art and life. The study on canvas, which by definition marks the boundaries of an imagined spatiality, corresponds to the realm of hypothesis, theorem, and dream. The shift to architectural scale implies a leap toward the stage of demonstration: the application of chromatic-plastic language to the scale of reality.
Info:
Marina Rheingantz. Rodamoinho
curated by Alberto Salvadori
20/11/2025 – 7/03/2025
ICA Milano
Via Orobia 26, 20139 Milano
www.icamilano.it
After graduating in Economics and Management of Cultural Heritage, he earned a master’s degree in Art History. Writing is a way to engage directly with artists’ research, gaining in-depth knowledge of them, and bringing out the layers of their language. The work of art responds to an intimate, shared and complex code that requires constant exploration and dialogue.
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