From the series Cotidiano [Everyday], 1982

Wilma Martins
1934, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Wilma Martins relates to her surroundings through drawings, engravings and paintings. In the series Cotidiano [Everyday] (1975-1984), her work process consists of various stages in which drawings and paintings come and go to and from her notebooks like visitations – at times they are sketches for later paintings, at others they are registers of compositions born on the canvas. Seemingly ordinary domestic spaces are inhabited by wild animals and covered by forests and rivers that spring from the cracks of day- to-day life, such as a sink filled with dishes or the folds of a blanket. Playing with scale and colors, the artist makes the coexistence of supposedly incompatible worlds visible. In her work, that which may be lurking in the unconscious comes to the surface to unexpectedly cross over into the everyday routine and occupy it with an uncanny atmosphere. Residing in Rio de Janeiro since the 1960s, Martins admires views from her home, a practice she uses to create her landscape paintings. Santa Teresa com elefantes [Saint Theresa with Elephants] (1984) and Rio de Janeiro com cristais [Rio de Janeiro with Crystals] (1986) depict new possibilities for revelation or disturbance amidst the lush vegetation and urban structures of supposedly trivial places.