Exhibitions

Ana Elisa Egreja's magical realism arrives in San Francisco

Ana Elisa Egreja, Pink Table with Chinoiserie and Roseate Spoonbills [Mesa Rosa com Chinoiserie e Colhereiros-Rosados], 2026

bonart san francisco - 04/08/26

Brazilian artist Ana Elisa Egreja makes her US solo debut with The Flight of Color , an exhibition featuring fifteen new oil paintings in which domestic space is transformed into a realm where the everyday takes on an extraordinary dimension. The exhibition is on view until September 3 at the Jessica Silverman Gallery.

Working at life-size scale, Egreja recreates interiors inspired by her life in São Paulo, populating them with wild animals, exuberant flowers, and foods that are part of her everyday imagination. Her compositions, built with a palette of intense colors and a highly precise brushstroke, blur the boundaries between the domestic and the wild, the sacred and the commercial, the sublime and the unusual. More than surreal scenes, the artist proposes a universe close to magical realism, where, in her own words, everything is "improbable, but not impossible."

Ana Elisa Egreja, Interior with a Jaguar and Sun Conure [Interior com Onça-Pintada e Jandaias-Sol], 2026

Egreja defines herself as a "contemporary archaeologist." Her artistic practice begins with the observation of everyday objects imbued with cultural identity or shared memory, which she rescues and transforms into contemporary still lifes. Furniture, containers, flowers, textiles, and food are reorganized into symbolic compositions that engage with the Dutch still-life painting tradition, while also incorporating the compositional freedom of collage.

The exhibition is permeated by the chromatic range of a tropical sunset, with incandescent oranges, deep reds, and saturated purples enveloping the scenes. In Interior with Five Cats at Sunset (2026), several black cats rest with complete ease on a sofa decorated with dragons, while a real beaded curtain unfurls in front of the canvas, blurring the boundaries between the painting and the physical space. In Interior with a Jaguar and Sun Conures (2026), a jaguar occupies an elegant modernist sofa while small parrots fly around the room, transforming the home into an ecosystem where nature reclaims its central role.