Nature is the law in the surreal kingdom created by Ana Elisa Egreja. Lions, dogs, birds and bears, just to mention a few of the main characters in her oil paintings, interact with each other inside the rooms of an old house, creating the most eccentric situations on the canvases. If animals could speak, how extraordinary would be the stories they could tell? One can get an idea through Ana Elisa Egreja’s works, between feathers and furs, from one chamber to another... As another young lady would say: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

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The first series of paintings made by the artist had still-life as the main theme, as well as in the titles: dead ducks and hunting dogs jumping in the air made references to commonly known figures from Old Masters paintings; but instead of the traditional countryside in the background, Egreja transported these animals to spaces where the viewer can barely distinguish between walls, ceilings and floors. Environments with distorted perspectives, created by patterns coming from delicate and colorful laces to geometric Portuguese tiles (for this it is impossible not to remember the work of another Brazilian artist, Adriana Varejão). The contrast between background and subjects captures the eye; Egreja’s brushstrokes are deathly shots for the memory of the viewers, slowly staining the fabrics of their minds.

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Moving on from no specific scenario to very familiar ones, Ana Elisa invites the public to another level in her following series. What seems to be the evolution of nature, is certainly the evolution of the painter as well. Other animals join the scene (stags, pigs and owls, among others) and take control of the rooms of a house. Here pandas read newspapers, tigers have dinner and monkeys have sex next door, all surrounded by new graphic patterns, peculiar objects and other references to Western art history (e.g. Ingres, Vermeer). It is a home-like location where household actions are happening, but these are not domestic animals... Similarly, what exactly is domestic about men?

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George Orwell’s famous book Animal Farm was a satire exposing how humans can be as ignorant as animals - or is it the opposite? What is the secret whispered by the animals to the artist, in this case, and encrypted on the canvas for the public? In terms of Brazil, there is an evident reference to the important role of the rich fauna, the vivid colors of daily life and the joyful sense of humor. But this is also the country of contradictions and juxtapositions of realities: a house with beautiful wallpapers but flooded floors, where wolves dress like sheep and one never knows who is the prey or the hunter; it is a social jungle full of entrapments. In this context, Egreja seems to instinctively denounce the circus of some political houses, where domestic issues have gone wildly out of control. The palace of beauty is, nonetheless, the den of the beasts.

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For this exhibition, Ana Elisa Egreja presents Barroco Mineiro (Minas Gerais Baroque), a new painting full of references to religion and tradition in Brazil. The ceiling of the room is based on a famous Church work from the Brazilian Baroque period - a strong influence to the national art until nowadays. The window serve as an altar for icons, where one can see images of Catholic saints, while on the floor it is possible to notice a bottle of cachaça, the most popular alcoholic drink in the country and also associated with Candomblé rituals (original creed brought to the country by the African slaves). Close by there is a tiny black cat, a well known symbol of superstition. Finally, the wallpapers can be read as a reference to the artist own oeuvre; in this context, they embrace and expose the power of belief in the environment surrounding Brazilian people.