Emilia Estrada
Emilia Estrada (b. Córdoba, Argentina, 1989) is an artist and researcher who lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. Engaging with notions of displacement and occupation, her practice confronts how power is inscribed in archives and in representations of space. By probing the gaps and omissions of official records, Estrada excavates buried memories and proposes alternative readings of hegemonic historical narratives. For the artist, archives are not merely neutral repositories of information that contribute to the production of history, but contested fields where remembrance and erasure intertwine, revealing structures of domination.
Working primarily with drawing, installation, and archival research, Estrada investigates terrestrial and celestial cartographies as instruments of power that organize and naturalize arbitrary borders, legitimizing processes of exploitation and territorial appropriation. By articulating poetic, iconographic, and archival elements, the artist constructs speculative mappings that make visible the arbitrariness of historiography and the symbolic systems that shape territorial imaginaries. In her works, cartography is not reinvented but unmasked: what presents itself as a descriptive tool reveals itself to be a fiction shaped by vested interests - and it is within this contaminated terrain, where documentation and imagination have always intermingled, that her practice operates. Here, Estrada brings together historical documents, iconographic archives, and mythologies, weaving them into drawings and installations that unsettle inherited narratives and fabulate new territorial imaginaries.
In recent investigations, the artist turns her gaze to the sky and takes the Moon as a surface of projection, where science, mythology, and colonial desire converge. Celestial cartography - its reliefs, compositions, and nomenclatures - is analyzed as a mirror of terrestrial imperial projects, revealing how science, mythology, and fiction intertwine in aspirations of possession and control. Her visual vocabulary interlaces references from colonial heraldry and science fiction imaginaries, expanding the possibilities of cartographic imagination.
Péndulo I, from the Andalucía series (2026) // Charcoal and gold leaf on linen and brass // 215 x 128 cm (detail)
Péndulo I, from the Andalucía series (2026) // Charcoal and gold leaf on linen and brass // 215 x 128 cm
Péndulo I, from the Andalucía series (2026) // Charcoal and gold leaf on linen and brass // 215 x 128 cm (detail)
Mar da Tranquilidade (2025) // Charcoal on linen, velvet, basalt and brass // 150 x 104 cm
Mar da Tranquilidade (2025) // Charcoal on linen, velvet, basalt and brass // 150 x 104 cm (detail)
Mar da Tranquilidade (2025) // Charcoal on linen, velvet, basalt and brass // 150 x 104 cm
CV
Educational Programs and Residencies
Visual Arts studies at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC) and Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF).
Tilal Utique, Kamel Lazaar Foundation – Tunisia, 2026
Gasworks Residency – London, 2025
Residency at Instituto Adelina – São Paulo, 2020
Artist Residency – Museu da Imigração do Estado de São Paulo, 2019
ABERTA Residency – Centro Cultural Hélio Oiticica – Rio de Janeiro, 2019
Research Grant for International Residencies for Research and Production – Bilbao, Euskadi (Basque Country), 2017
Fellow of the Contemporary Art Practices Program at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage – Rio de Janeiro, 2015
Selected Exhibitions and Projects
Nossa América – Museu Eva Klabin. Curated by Camila Rocha Campos | Rio de Janeiro, 2026
Cama de Gato – Sesc Rio. Curated by de Lucas Albuquerque | Rio de Janeiro, 2026
Permanently Shadowed – Solo at Cantadora Gallery. Curated by Flávia Prestininzi | Rome, 2025
Formas das águas – Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio. Curated by Pablo Lafuente and Raquel Barreto | Rio de Janeiro 2025
Every morning, a time – HATCH Gallery. Curated by Amina Diab | Paris, 2025
Desenhos de chegada – SESC Ramos. Curated by Ana Clara Simões Lopes | Rio de Janeiro, 2025
TRANSE - Rotas Brasileiras 2025. Curated by Lucas Albuquerque | São Paulo, 2025
Tempo Composto – Athena Gallery. Curated by Lucas Alberto | Rio de Janeiro 2025
Otra Orilla [Another Shore] – Gateway Exhibition at Manarat Saadiyat. Curated by Odessa Warren and Carine Harmand | Abu Dhabi 2024
ABRE ALAS 19 – A Gentil Carioca Gallery. Curated by Agrade Camíz and Daniela Castro | Rio de Janeiro 2024
MUAMBA: Brazilian Traces of Movement – Ruby Cruel Gallery. Curated by Lucas Albuquerque | London 2023
A Parábola do Progresso – SESC Pompeia. Curated by Lisette Lagnado, André Pitol and Yudi Rafael | São Paulo 2022
Outras Imaginações Políticas – Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio. Curated by Luisa Duarte and Pollyana Quintella | Rio de Janeiro 2022
Manjar Nascente – Solar dos Abacaxis. Curated by Bernardo Mosqueira, Catarina Duncan and Ana Clara Simões Lopes | Rio de Janeiro 2022
HEAT – Quadra Gallery. Curated by Victor Gorgulho | Rio de Janeiro 2022
Zil Zil Zil – Centro Cultural Hélio Oiticica. Curated by Bruna Costa, Felipe Carnaúba and Antonio Tebyriçá | Rio de Janeiro 2022
MIRA – ArtRio 2021. Curated by Victor Gorgulho | Rio de Janeiro 2021
Casa Carioca – Museu de Arte do Rio. Curated by Joice Berth and Marcelo Campos | Rio de Janeiro 2020
NaZanza – Aymoré Gallery. Curated by Aldones Nino, Anna Priscila Marques, Bárbara Machado, Carole Chueke, Juliana Knopp, Juliana Pajek, Lorena Brito, Lucas Albuquerque, Osvaldo Carvalho, Pietro di Biase, Silvana Marcelina and Thais Rocha | Rio de Janeiro 2019
Arte Aproxima – Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (MNBA). Curated by Lisette Lagnado | Rio de Janeiro 2018
Pouso de Emergência – Caixa Preta. Curated by Rafa Bqueer and Vinícius Monte | Rio de Janeiro 2018
Junho de 2013, 5 anos depois – Centro Cultural Hélio Oiticica. Curated by Daniela Machado and Gabriela Lúcio | Rio de Janeiro 2018
Depois do Futuro – EAV Parque Lage. Curated by Daniela Labra | Rio de Janeiro 2016