Artist Thiago Barbalho now showing at Elizabeth Xi Bauer Galleries

Elizabeth Xi Bauer is proud to announce the co-representation of artist Thiago Barbalho. Known for his richly layered works that explore language, visual symbolism, and metaphysical inquiry, Barbalho brings to the gallery a deeply reflective and dynamic practice that traverses drawing, writing, and philosophical exploration through his intricate and evocative compositions.

Thiago Barbalho is co-represented with Nara Roesler, one of Brazil’s leading contemporary galleries, founded in 1989. Nara Roesler is based in São Paulo and expanded to Rio de Janeiro in 2014. In 2015, it was the first Brazilian gallery to open a space in New York. The gallery works with seminal Brazilian artists and a new generation of established artists.

Working across a variety of materials and mediums, Barbalho’s works feature an array of symbols, motifs, and references that weave together fragmented narratives in vivid colour. Marked by his background in philosophy, anthropology, and law, Barbalho’s practice becomes a space of slow revelation, where thought and material coalesce into symbolic fields of spiritual and cognitive resistance.

With influences ranging from Brazilian handcraft traditions to continental philosophy, his works unfold with the density of poetry and the rhythm of ritual. Barbalho creates what he terms ‘visual writing’—artworks that speak beyond language, demanding time, contemplation, and sensory immersion.

Compositions are meticulous yet intuitive, chaotic yet contemplative. Barbalho’s works prompt reflection on the tension between meaning and its visual representation.

Barbalho first exhibited with Elizabeth Xi Bauer in 2023, in a duo exhibition, Phantom Dance, and in 2025, in the Inaugural Exhibition of Elizabeth Xi Bauer’s second London space. Having exhibited in Portugal, the UK, and across Brazil, Barbalho’s recent solo exhibitions include Secrets and Spells at Nara Roesler, São Paulo, and Cacimba Nova in Jardim do Seridó, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.

Barbalho’s works are in the collections of Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil and Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil.

In 2019, Barbalho was nominated for the PIPA Prize. The PIPA Prize recognises prominent Brazilian visual artists. Providing space for exchange, critical thinking and artistic experimentation, in 2017, Barbalho completed a residency at Pivô Arte e Pesquisa, São Paulo, Brazil.

Later this year, Barbalho will undertake a residency at Further On Air, New York. The residency provides the opportunity for deepening engagement with nature and site-responsive processes, with its location in Long Island. It aims to support contemporary artists, providing them a space for reflection and the development of new works.

A writer and artist, Barbalho has published short stories, novels and poetry. Barbalho founded the independent press Edições Vira-lata. His artworks are featured across various publications including Phaidon’s 2021 publication, Vitamin D3, Today’s Best in Contemporary Drawing. Barbalho’s work is featured in Dreams in the Sun – Mirages of Art in Latin America, published in 2024. The publication features around 140 artists showcasing Latin American creativity from 1900 to 2024.

Gallery locations:

Deptford: Fuel Tank, 8-12 Creekside, London, SE8 3DX

Exmouth Market: 20-22 Exmouth Market, London, EC1R 4QE

About Elizabeth Xi Bauer

Elizabeth Xi Bauer is a contemporary art gallery based in London, with galleries in Exmouth Market and Deptford.  Founded in 2015, Elizabeth Xi Bauer began as an innovative online platform accompanied by pop-up exhibitions. In 2021, as the UK was exiting lockdown restrictions, Artistic Director Edward Sheldrick and Directors Callum Welch and Matthew Grochowski took on the challenge to open a permanent space in South-East London.

Since then, the gallery has curated more than 20 exhibitions in London and collaborated on projects with international institutions, curators, and artists across São Paulo, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Lisbon.

Elizabeth Xi Bauer Deptford offers a residency programme, for national and international artists to develop their practice. The studio allows artists the opportunity to work in proximity to where their art will later be exhibited, giving them creative freedom to experiment with new materials and ideas.

Over the past decade, Elizabeth Xi Bauer has played a role in nurturing the careers of emerging artists, including Theodore Ereira-Guyer and Abraham Kritzman, alongside showcasing a diverse range of artists from around the world, like Antonio Pichillá and Karoliina Hellberg.

Through Elizabeth Xi Bauer’s exhibition programme and international collaborations, its represented artists have also exhibited alongside internationally renowned artists, including Marlene Dumas, Caroline Achaintre, Jo Spence, Ulay, Uriel Orlow, Paulo Monteiro, Oswaldo Maciá, Tonico Lemos Auad, and Caragh Thuring. The gallery’s artists have exhibited worldwide, with works acquired by prestigious institutions, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; British Museum, London; Tate, London; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Cover image: Abraham Kritzman: Land’s End, 2022–2023, Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery. Photograph: Richard Ivey. Courtesy of the Artists and Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery, London.

For more information please visit elizabethxibauer.com

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