The work of Carolina Ponte unfolds in a territory where ornament, traditionally relegated to the margins of composition, assumes central protagonism. Her exuberant crochet works, intricate drawings, and sculptural objects invert expectations: the frame becomes the center, the detail tells the story, and excess itself is celebrated as a language. It is a body of work that rejects restraint and embraces saturation, of color, form, and texture, constructing compositions that oscillate between artisanal devotion and conceptual sophistication.
With a degree in printmaking at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and having studied at the School of Visual Arts at Parque Lage and the UFMG Winter Festivals, Ponte has built a solid trajectory, exhibiting in galleries and institutions in Brazil, Mexico, France, Denmark, Qatar, and the United States. In each context, her work preserves its essence while engaging in dialogue with its surroundings, absorbing architectural, decorative, and ritual references. Crochet, learned in childhood as a playful activity, has evolved into a precise, signature technique, capable of transforming exhibition spaces into living, vibrant, and porous organisms.
There is also something meditative, almost hypnotic, in her process.The repetitive gesture of hand-making translates into visual rhythms that capture the gaze and guide it through labyrinths of lines and spirals. Repetition here is not merely aesthetic; it represents resistance to the acceleration of contemporary life, a defense of expanded, artisanal temporality in opposition to industrial logic. Thus, her work resonates simultaneously with popular traditions and contemporary debates concerning the value of manual labor in art.
Carolina Ponte’s work is an invitation to notice what would normally go unseen. Whether through crochet patterns reminiscent of living organisms enveloping architectural surfaces, or in drawings that unfold like kaleidoscopic mandalas, the artist proposes a total sensory experience, where excess does not suffocate but liberates, like a visual celebration that prolongs itself and lingers in memory.
