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BIOGRAPHY

About

Paula Klien is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist whose visual production spans a wide variety of languages, techniques, and media. Her oeuvre as a whole – in each of the fields she has worked in – articulates investigations that navigate between the roots of tradition and the impulse toward innovation.

A constant tension between formal precision and ruin, between aesthetic refinement and openness to discomfort, runs through her work. In everything, there is a desire for permanence that coexists with an acceptance of the ephemeral – a movement between painstaking control and expression with abandon. From this unstable ground emerges a disruptive ambivalence that permeates the essence of her entire poetics.

Her creations do not offer answers. They present nuances, spontaneous patches of color, empty spaces, and doubts. In this restless journey, courage sustains her artistic freedom: the courage of the deconstructed line, the irreverent gesture, and the conscious release from the norms of belonging – in favor of a living, intuitive, and singular language.

Visual Arts

Paula Klien began her artistic practice with drawing. Although her early lines were academic, they gradually deconstructed as her work evolved. Throughout her trajectory, she has experimented with a wide range of materials. In her most recent work, she has turned to the investigation of the invisible, exploring dimensions of spirituality, transcendence, silence, and surrender. Much of her creative process now takes place in water, where large-format canvases and papers take shape. She often works in the fresh waters of rivers, a practice that brings her back to the sources of her references in Chinese art and Taoism, the tradition in which ink-wash painting emerged and the path was taught as the art of letting things flow.

Crypto Art

Although not included in this book due to their virtual nature and use of moving images – with the exception of one work featured on pages 188 and 189 – Paula Klien’s crypto art pieces marked a period of intense activity in her career.

In 2020, three years after returning to the visual arts and already enjoying growing recognition from exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, she was preparing for a series of shows that would further expand her established presence in the art circuit. However, with the arrival of the pandemic, these exhibitions were abruptly canceled.

What might have been a time of doldrums became a launchpad. Amid the global standstill, Paula entered a new creative field and found in digital art a coherent, powerful expansion deeply connected to her experimental trajectory. Following a path marked by boldness and avant-garde vision, she became one of the pioneers of crypto art in Brazil.

Represented by Metaverse Agency, led by Byron Mendes – a driving force in getting blockchain art accepted by Brazil’s traditional art circuit – Paula played a decisive role in the NFT scene both nationally and internationally.

Her international debut took place in May 2021 on the MakersPlace platform, one of the most prestigious and rigorously curated digital galleries in the world at the time, accessible only to artists with global recognition. There, she released two consecutive collections that quickly sold out, establishing her within the international crypto art scene.

That same year, in June, she was invited to join the select group of artists in the first edition of the 100 Creators program by Binance NFT, established by the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange with the aim of highlighting significant artistic voices at the launch of its new marketplace.

In September, she participated in the ArtRio fair, invited by Metaverse Agency to take part in the first NFT booth ever presented at a major art fair in Brazil, a historic milestone in legitimizing the digital medium for the contemporary art public. At the same time, her digital works were exhibited at the prestigious Hamptons Fine Art Fair in New York, expanding her international presence and reaffirming her dual engagement in both contemporary and digital art circuits.

Between November 2021 and early 2022, she released works on the Tropix platform – founded by Daniel Peres Chor, then a leader in the sector in Brazil. She also presented works on the Invert platform, created by Andres Bilbao, cofounder of iFood, where she developed the New Eden project, aimed at preserving areas of the Amazon. In parallel with these efforts she promoted a special NFT release for charity in partnership with Pupti, led by Marcos Vinícius Rego, donating part of the proceeds to the Paiter Suruí Indigenous people of Rondônia.

In March 2022, she participated in the first edition of ArtSampa, which was including digital art for the first time in its history. The following month, she donated the NFT Mother Flower One to the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Sorocaba (MACS), thus becoming the first artist to have an NFT included in the collection of a private Brazilian museum. Also in April, two of her digital works were exhibited at SP-Arte, at the Tropix stand. In August, she took part in a major exhibition of NFTs at the Museu da Imagem e do Som (MIS), in São Paulo.

She has furthermore extended her work into the field of debate and reflection, with speaking engagements at prominent events, including Ethereum Rio, held at the Museu do Amanhã, and the Tardes Cariocas talk series at the casa da escada colorida.

During this digital phase, Paula collaborated with many artists, including Mike Deodato (Marvel comic book artist), JF Lemay, Marcus Forster, Sol Galvão, Uno, Simo, and Dex.

During this period of intense activity in the digital art scene, Paula reaffirmed her place as a pioneering voice in technological artistic expression, combining a futuristic vision with a commitment to the urgencies of the present.

Timeline

PHOTOGRAPHY (2004–2014)
Fashion and Advertising

2004 to 2007 Paula Klien photographed more than 3,000 portfolios for models from agencies such as Elite Model Management, 40 Graus Models, and other national and international agencies. She also produced various fashion editorials and advertising campaigns for magazines and clients, working as a creative director and image producer.

Authorial Projects

2007 The exhibition Gatos & Sapatos, Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil (IAB), Rio de Janeiro.
2010 The book It’s Raining Men, Livraria da Travessa Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro.
2012 The exhibition Edible, Galeria BNDES, Rio de Janeiro.
2014 The book Pessoas Me Interessam, Livraria Saraiva Leblon, Rio de Janeiro.
2015 The exhibition Pessoas Me Interessam, Clubhouse Rio, Rio de Janeiro.

Participations

2009 The book and exhibition Mulheres de Verdade, São Conrado Fashion Mall, Rio de Janeiro.
2010 The exhibition Natural do Rio, Shopping Leblon, Rio de Janeiro.
2011 Contemporary Art Biennial of Florence, Fortezza da Basso, Florence.
2011 The exhibition Brasileirice, Real Astoria, Rio de Janeiro.
2011 The book and exhibition Shakespeare, retratos de uma festa luminosa, Sesc Rio, Rio de Janeiro.
2012 Contemporary Art Fair Artigo Rio, Centro de Convenções SulAmérica, Rio de Janeiro.
2012 The book and exhibition Shakespeare, retratos de uma festa luminosa, Travessa Leblon, Rio de Janeiro.
2012 The book and exhibition Shakespeare, retratos de uma festa luminosa, Espaço Cultural Porto Seguro, São Paulo.
2012 Contemporary Art Biennial of Rome, Sala Del Bramante, Rome.
2013 Contemporary Art Fair Artigo Rio, Centro de Convenções SulAmérica, Rio de Janeiro.
2014 The exhibition LZ Arte, LZ Studio, Rio de Janeiro.

VISUAL ARTS (2017–2025)
Solo Exhibitions

2017 February Invisibilities, aquabitArt gallery, Berlin.
2018 August Extremos Líquidos, Casa de Cultura Laura Alvim, Rio de Janeiro.
2019 December Fluvius, Centro Cultural dos Correios, Rio de Janeiro.

Group Exhibitions

2017

March Clio Art Fair, Chelsea Art District, New York.
May arteBA, Galeria Emmathomas, Buenos Aires.
August Asia on My Mind, aquabitArt gallery, Berlin.
September POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair, aquabitArt gallery, Berlin.
September Start Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London.
November Contemporary Art Fair PARTE, Galeria Aura, São Paulo.

2018

April Desver a Arte, Galeria Emmathomas, São Paulo.
April Paper Positions Art Fair, Berlin Gallery Weekend, aquabitArt gallery, Berlin.
May CasaCor SP, booth of João Armentano, Galeria Emmathomas, São Paulo.
September Art Biennial of Salerno, Salerno.
September Deutsche Bank Finance, Berlin.
September ArtRio, Galeria Emmathomas, São Paulo.
December Pincel Oriental, Centro Cultural dos Correios, Rio de Janeiro.

2019

May to July CasaCor Paraná, Galeria Zilda Fraletti, Curitiba.
May to July Ognuno il suo stile, Museu dos Correios, Brasília.

2020

February Lecture on creative process at Saint Paul Business School, São Paulo.
March to November The exhibition Artefacto, booth of Patricia Anastassiadis, São Paulo.
July 11 years aquabitArt, aquabitArt Gallery, Berlin.
July Artsoul Project, Galeria Bianca Boeckel, São Paulo.
August SP-Arte Viewing Room, Galeria Bianca Boeckel, São Paulo.
August The exhibition Arte da Lembrança, Galeria Bianca Boeckel, São Paulo.
September ArtRio, Galeria Bianca Boeckel, Rio de Janeiro.
November SP-Foto, Galeria Zilda Fraletti, São Paulo.

2021

March CasaCor Rio, booth of Adriana Esteves, Rio de Janeiro.
October SP-Arte, Galeria Sergio Gonçalves, São Paulo.

2022

June Um Acervo Preto e Branco, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Sorocaba (MACS), Sorocaba.
July Sunnysick, Casa70, Lisbon.
August Überschau 4, CSR, Art at Berlin, aquabitArt gallery, Berlin.
October The exhibition Al di là delle frontiere, Basílica de San Lorenzo, Rome.

2025

April Reflection, aquabitArt gallery, Berlin.
April Grandes Formatos, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Sorocaba (MACS), Sorocaba.

Studies

Open courses at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro.
Photography workshop with Steve McCurry, New York.

Kunstgut artist residency, Berlin.

Representation

aquabitArt Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
Metaverse Agency, Brazil / global.
Sergio Gonçalves Galeria de Arte, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil.
Galeria Zilda Fraletti, Paraná, Brazil.
Galeria Mara Dolzan, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

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