Noara Quintana (1986) is a visual artist who lives and works between Florianópolis, São Paulo, and Los Angeles. Her research focuses on the materiality of everyday objects and on the traces of Global South histories they carry. Through installations and sculptures, her work points to economic exchanges, architectural forms, and narratives that subvert the legacy of a colonial imaginary.

Among her many residencies are: Ybytu (2024), in partnership with MAM São Paulo for the 38th Panorama da Arte Brasileira, São Paulo; Delfina Foundation (2023), supported by Instituto Inclusartiz, London; Pivô Arte Pesquisa (2021), São Paulo; Cité Internationale des Arts, as “Lauréate 2020” of Institut Français, and the EHESS Art and Research Residency, Paris (2017). In 2026, she will be artist-in-residence at Instituto Meca, Niterói, with support from the Prêmio FOCO Art Rio 2025.

Recent exhibitions include Histórias da Ecologia, MASP (2025); 1000º – 38º Panorama da Arte Brasileira, MAM-SP, São Paulo (2024); Crime as Ornament, Galerie Crone, Vienna (2024); Bubuia, Bienal das Amazônias, Belém (2023); Pays rêvé, pays reverse, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2023); De montañas submarinas el fuego hace islas, KADIST and PIVÔ, São Paulo (2022); and For The Phoenix To Find Its Form In Us, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin (2021).

Studies for Devouring (Lizards) (2025) is a watercolor depicting a nocturnal scene in which lizards eagerly gather around a ceramic vessel. The work is part of O rio é um cinema, a series based on research conducted by the artist in the collections of Museu Emílio Goeldi, Belém (2025), referencing the museum’s archives and the artists who have studied them over its 159-year history. The watercolor portrays calangos do bico-doce, native to the Parque Zoobotânico Emílio Goeldi, in dialogue with a 1920 ceramic vase by the Pará-born artist Theodoro Braga, where forms of Marajoara funerary urns and the fauna of a Brazilian art nouveau intertwine.