Ana Prata's pictorial research brings together components from modernist repertoires and elements of common everyday life. From large scales to small formats, her paintings primarily result from her engagement with materials and the practical experience of the studio. Working with humor on aspects of interiority and intimacy, Ana Prata establishes her practice as an exercise of her critical spirit.
By appropriating established genres from art history, her gaze remains attentive to the new meanings her paintings can assume, while her practice precisely elaborates a pictorial vocabulary that diverges from the expected. "It seems like I'm searching for a kind of affection or comfort that is expressed in these small scenes. I look at them like toys, or sometimes representations of objects belonging to distant worlds, maybe even prehistoric. They are fictions; the way of doing it is what imbues some sense of reality", comments the artist.
A graduate in Fine Arts from the University of São Paulo, Ana Prata has participated in significant national and international exhibitions, including Used Cloth at 56 Henry Gallery, New York, USA; Stone Fruits at Tobias Mueller Modern Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland (2023); The Life of Things at Tobias Mueller Modern Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland (2020); Para Hilda Hilst at Municipal Library Mário de Andrade, São Paulo, SP (2018); Brasil Portraits, Discoveries at Hong Kong Art Basel, Hong Kong, China (2017); and Jogo de Desmontar at Centro Universitário Maria Antonia, São Paulo, SP (2009), among others.
Throughout her career, she has participated in prominent collective exhibitions in contemporary art, including OFF the Grid at Lamb Gallery, London, UK (2021); Desenho Sujo at Espaço das Artes - USP, São Paulo, SP (2019); Os desígnios da arte contemporânea no Brasil at Museu de Arte Contemporânea de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP (2018); and Troposphere at Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, China (2017), among others.
In 2011, she participated in the Red Bull House of Art artistic residency in São Paulo, SP, and in 2016, in Residency Unlimited in New York, USA. She was nominated for the PIPA Prize in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Her works are part of important collections, including the Pinault Collection, Paris, France; Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Miami, USA; Itaú Cultural Institute; and Pinacoteca de São Paulo, SP, among others.