Marina Esmeraldo’s Art Is An Exploration of Lines and Shapes

Scrolling through Marina Esmeraldo’s Instagram page, it’s hard not be taken by her clever use of colors and shapes. A multidisciplinary artist born in Brazil and based between Barcelona and London (at least when traveling is permitted), Esmeraldo’s work leans on her modernist training in architecture. Her work includes anything from paintings and murals to wooden sculptures and neon pieces, all made with the aim to represent what Esmeraldo calls “the architecture of emotional places.”

A careful observer of spaces, Esmeraldo is also very much inspired by her Brazilian background. “I think there’s a vibrant quality of where I’m from that finds its way into my work,” she remarked once in an interview with GCN Magazine, adding that having worked long enough, she’s witnessed how this vibrant source of inspiration takes different shapes and different mediums.

“I think it’s very hard not to be influenced by your surroundings when you grow up,” she adds. “And in Brazil, we have such a rich, folkloric culture. This all came out in my work quite late because I trained in architecture and when I was an architecture student, I really was obsessed with minimalism. And clean white shapes. Then when I started to work with illustration, a lot of color and pattern and craziness came out and I just kind of rolled with it, let it come through.”

With thousands of followers online, and exhibitions around the world, including the Venice Biennale, Esmeraldo’s study of shapes and lines, has clearly come to fruition. Below you’ll find a collection of some of her more recent pieces. Follow her Instagram page for more: