First Dive Beatriz Buendia

Beatriz Buendia explores gesture and scale in her first solo exhibition at Gruta 

Curated by Gabriela Gotoda, “First Dive” brings together paintings that reject pure abstraction to create fields of experience and associations. 

Starting July 11, Gruta – Espaço de Arte Contemporânea presents “First Dive”, Beatriz Buendia’s first solo exhibition. Bringing together a body of paintings developed over the past two years, the show marks both a milestone in her artistic maturation and a turning point in her career. The body of work is the visible result of five years of immersion in the studio environment, a period during which the artist refined her ongoing exploration of support preparation, pigmentation, and technique, consolidating an increasingly distinctive artistic language. 

Moving away from an understanding of abstraction as a purely formal territory, Buendia’s work is based on the premise that the pictorial surface is capable of engaging the viewer. As the artist herself states, it is about evoking “a sensation, a memory, a mood, a desire, or a scent hidden in memory.” “Perhaps that is why I like to think of these works as invitations to dive in—not into a closed narrative, but into a field of experiences and possibilities, where colors, forms, and matter can be felt before they are explained.” 
Buendia’s relationship with the visual arts began in childhood, influenced by her grandfather, a painter. After working with photography and collage in college, she began to devote herself to painting. Since 2022, she has been part of the professional staff at MAM São Paulo, an experience that complements her participation in Paulo Pasta’s painting course and the art history study group led by Rodrigo Naves. 

Shift to Large Format

Recognized in the art world for her consistent body of work in small formats, Buendia is now expanding her scope to large-scale media. This shift allows for a more evident presence of gesture and materiality—aspects that have been taking center stage in her artistic practice. Curator Gabriela Gotoda notes that this expanded scope allows us to understand the brushstroke and painting as a phenomenon that “engages with an optimistic and pioneering curiosity, resonating in the high contrasts, vibrant tones, and textures that define her artistic language.”

On this new scale, Buendia’s paintings constitute sensory fields where the interactions between color, material, and gesture manifest themselves at times subtly, at other times intensely. These surfaces harbor events that respond to a dynamic state of non-elaboration, without a preplanned organization. 

First Dive

Beatriz Buendia’s paintings feature a few recurring elements—such as arches, spirals, beams, and portals—that serve as symbols of openness, transition, and direction. This quest for crossing over is also reflected in her brushstrokes, which move across the surface from the outside in, always starting from the edges. The visual dynamics reinforce the concept that gives the exhibition its title: the artist’s gesture literally engages the pictorial field, often beginning her process at the edge of the canvas. 

The artist defines her canvases as invitations to immerse oneself and to slow down the gaze, opening up a field of experiences in which forms, colors, and materials come before explanations. “Painting interests me because it opens up a world of possibilities, because of its capacity to imagine and touch upon that which eludes words. Perhaps my painting is also this: an invitation to linger, to observe, and to encounter that which usually goes unnoticed.”