Volery Gallery has organised The Higher We Soar, a solo exhibition by Japanese-Brazilian artist Mariana Oushiro, marking the culmination of the gallery’s V-Residency programme. During her residency, the artist has produced a new series of works that pushes the boundaries of abstraction, inviting visitors to explore movement, perception, and spatial depth. The exhibition will be open to the public until 5 April 2025.
In her latest series, Oushiro continues to examine dimensionality and the interplay between space and form. Her layered use of colour and texture creates immersive compositions that extend beyond the canvas, challenging perceptions of stability and balance. The art pieces transport viewers into shifting landscapes where structure dissolves and reconfigures, guiding the eye through fragmented perspectives and fluid motion.
The Higher We Soar represents a culmination and a new beginning, reflecting Oushiro’s evolving practice while hinting at future artistic directions. The exhibition allows visitors to experience abstraction as a multi-sensory language that bridges intellect and intuition, discipline and spontaneity, stillness, and motion.
About the artist
Mariana Oushiro (b. 1992, São Gotardo, Minas Gerais, Brazil) resides in New York (USA). She obtained her BFA from Faculdade Santa Marcelina in São Paulo (Brazil) before relocating to New York in 2015. There, she studied at the Minerva Studio (2016) and The Art Students League of New York (2019), where she received the Merit Scholarship.
Oushiro’s practice, which draws inspiration from natural elements, fuses bold colours, sharp lines, and geometric forms, reflecting her dual cultural heritage. Inspired by the vibrancy of Brazilian art and the precision of Japanese aesthetics, her large-scale works strike a balance between structure and raw intensity. Each art piece embodies the interplay between order and chaos, intuition and calculation.
Her creative process is physical and instinctive. She often works with her canvas on the ground, moving across it, kneeling, and using her hands instead of brushes. This approach fosters an intimate connection with her work, allowing her to follow the natural geometry she perceives.
Oushiro has displayed her creations in various exhibitions, which include Wild: Women Abstractionists On Nature (Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Taguig, Philippines, 2024); Mariana Oushiro: Coming Home (solo) (FAAP, Museum of Brazilian Art, São Paulo, 2023); The world is wholly inside, & I am wholly outside myself (Galerie Mitterrand, Temple, Paris, France, 2023); and the Every Women Biennial (LaMaMa Galleria, New York, USA, 2019), among others.
To get more information about The Higher We Soar, please go to the official web page of the exhibition.
Additionally, you might be interested in exploring Verses In Motion by Behnam Moradi and Fahrelnissa and the Institutes: Towards a Sky, one of the online exhibitions at the Cultural Foundation.
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