Work

About the artist

In her mostly abstract works, Isabelle Borges explores patterns and structures she encounters in the visible world. Her main focus is on the geometry of the spaces between things and the resulting spatial dynamics. She generates pictorial spaces that expand and contract evoking spatial fabrics in motion.
Borges is heir to various strands in the tradition of abstract art. The Brazilian Neo-Concrete Movement was a major influence during her time studying in Rio de Janeiro; of equal importance were the New York School and certain European artists of the 1950s and 1960s. Like many artists of her generation who work with abstraction and geometry, Borges feels no dogmatic commitment to purity of form and non-illusionistic space. Spatial illusion and the flatness of shapes are in constant interplay in her oeuvre. Forms are not constructed out of purely pictorial elements.
Borges is often inspired by seemingly random structures she chances upon in the urban environment, in nature or in the mass media. The range of her work is broad, both in its aesthetic and its content, encompassing historical allusions, perceptual experiments, discursive interrogations and purely subjective approaches.
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Solo Shows

2023
crumble – fold- crumble – fold, Duo with Haleh Redjaian, Galerie Nanna Preußners, Hamburg
2022
Shifts, Feldbusch Wiesner Rudolph Galerie, Berlin
Solo Booth -Paper Positions Art Fair, Feldbusch Wiesner Rudolph Galerie, Berlin
All Numbers End, Duo with Yisu Kim, Frank Taal Gallery, Rotterdam, NL
2021
Floating Spaces, Frank Taal Gallery, Rotterdam, NL
Fragments of Time, Till Richter Museum, Schloss Buggenhagen, Buggenhagen
Mies goes Future, Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin
2020
Textures of reality, Kogan Amaro Galeria, Zurich, CH
In Between – Berlin Weekly, Project art space, Berlin
2018
Synthetic fields, Kogan Amaro Galeria, Sao Paulo, BR
Lost and found, Duo with Marcia Thomson, Botschaft Uferhallen, Berlin
the garden of forking paths, Galerie 1214, Berlin
2017
l´espace indicible, Galeria Roberto Alban, Salvador de Bahia, BR
2015
Imbalance of nature, Holthoff Mokross Galerie, Hamburg
2014
Dobras Silenciosas, Galeria Paralelo, Sao Paulo, BR
Interchangeable Templates, Smac Artspace, Berlin
2013
the arrow of time, Museu Brasileiro da Escultura – MUBE, Sao Paulo, BR
Isabelle Borges+ Bernd Hahn, Galerie alte Schule, Ahrenshoop
2012
Suchmaschine läuft – works on paper, Galerie Exhibeo, Berlin
2011
Der unsagbare Raum, Kunstverein Meiningen, Meiningen
the arrow of time (intro), Galerie im Tempelhofmuseum, Berlin
2010
Strom, Galerie Schuster, Berlin
2008
Hinterkopf, Galerie Weisser Elefant, Berlin
Kalt, Kalt – Heiss, Heiss, Galerie Schuster, Frankfurt a.M.
2004
Mind the Gap, Galeria Rosa Barbosa, Sao Paulo, BR 2002
Isabelle Borges, Brazilian Embassy, Berlin
Isabelle Borges, Galerie Spielhaus Morrison, Berlin
Isabelle Borges, Galerie Brigitte Utz, Dresden
2000
Galeria Candido Mendes, Rio de Janeiro, BR
Museu da República, Rio de Janeiro, BR
Quatro Quadros – Centro Cultural Candido Mendes, Rio de Janeiro, BR
Extremos – Centro Cultural Sao Francisco, Joao Pessoa, BR
1999
Isabelle Borges, Galeria SESC Paulista, Sao Paulo, BR
Isabelle Borges, Galerie Mönch, Berlin
Isabelle Borges, Kunstverein Tiergarten, Galerie Nord, Berlin

Group Shows – Selection

2023
Archipelago, Base-Alpha Gallery, Antwerpen, BE
Schöne fremde Freiheit, Galerie Rupert Pfab, Düsseldorf
(C6H10O5)n | The Art of Handling Paper, Galerie Heike Strelow / Strelow & Walter Projects, Frankfurt am Main
Trash – Cash, Frank Taal Gallery, Rotterdam, NL
2022
Environmental Abstraction, Laura Mars Gallery, Berlin
It’s a feeling, Kunstverein Meißen, Meißen
Utopias e Distopias, Museu de Arte Moderna, Salvador, BR
2021
Catch´22, Frank Taal Gallery, Rotterdam, NL
Proximity and Distance, Kunstraum LLC, New York, US
Color Bind – Curated by Marcello Dantas, Kogan Amaro Gallery, Sao Paulo, BR
Environmental Abstraction, Roger Katwijk Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
Three rooms, three exhibitions, Feldbusch Wiesner Rudolph Galerie, Berlin
Recently seen and admired, Feldbusch Wiesner Rudolph Galerie, Berlin
Out Now, Uferhalle Open Studios, Berlin
2020
Clash, Valencia – Berlin, Valencia, SP
Contemporary Contemplation 6, Galerie Ursula Walter, Dresden
Berlin Baustelle, De Cacao Fabriek, Helmond, NL
Something True, Schau Fenster, Berlin
Cold Turkey, Glue + Werketage eV., Berlin
10+, Frank Taal Gallery, Rotterdam, NL
2019
14th. international Bienale of Contemporary Art Curitiba, Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba, BR
Contemporary Contemplations #4, Bureau voor Kunst PHK 18, Rotterdam, NL
Rhizome – Berlin based, Galerie Frank Taal, Rotterdam, NL
Check Mate – Abstract Art vs. Figurative Art, Project space BCMA, Berlin
Geheimnis und Faktum, Galerie Alte Schule Adlershof, Berlin
Kunst im September, Pavillon am Milchhof, Berlin
 

Grants and Awards

2022
Neu start Kultur Kunstfonds Bonn
2020
Neu start Kultur Kunstfonds Bonn

Biography

Isabelle Borges was born in Salvador, Brazil in 1966. Between 1985 and 1987, she studied Social Sciences at the University of Brasilia. Between 1988 and 1992 she lived in Rio de Janeiro, where she attended at the Escola Visual do Parque Lage and had professors as Beatriz Milhazes, Daniel Senise, Charles Watson, among others.
In 1993 she immigrated to Germany, initially lived in Cologne and worked as an assistant to the studio of Antonio Dias and the American artist Jack Ox, who was doing research on Kurt Schwitters, a German dadaist artist. The contact with Schwitters’ work had a strong influence on the work of Isabelle Borges, especially in her collage series.
Between 1996 and 1997 he worked as assistant to Sigmar Polke and studied at the art academy in Düsseldorf. At the end of 1997, she moved to Berlin, where she currently resides and works.