Mayssa Leão brings stardust to CASACOR Pernambuco

Photo: Morgana Nunes

In a home for seniors designed by Célia Beatriz & Arquitetos, Pernambuco artist Mayssa Leão exhibits a canvas made with paint and blowtorch flame that brings together memory, nature and cosmos

By Samuel Navarro Serpa

RECIFE, Brazil — Visual artist Mayssa Leão presents “As estrelas atravessam a terra” (“The Stars Cross the Earth”), a 2026 canvas in acrylic and blowtorch flame, at CASACOR Pernambuco 2026. The piece is part of the space “Casa Sênior: Um Lar de Memória” (“Senior House: A Home of Memory”), designed by Célia Beatriz & Arquitetos around a simple premise: a home should welcome stories and keep pace with life’s changes. This edition’s theme is “Mente e Coração” (“Mind and Heart”).

Autonomy and well-being guide the project. Integrated rooms, fluid circulation paths and furniture designed for daily use make routines more practical, while automation eases control of the home’s resources. Each solution seeks to adjust the dwelling to the needs of its occupants.Universal design at CASACOR also appears in this year’s São Paulo edition.

Paintings, photographs and sentimental objects, in colors and textures that recall other generations, connect the rooms to the residents’ life stories and reinforce a sense of memory and belonging at CASACOR. Mayssa Leão’s canvas joins this ensemble as the anchor of a home prepared for the future and for continuing to build memories.

Soil, stars and fire

Photo: Alison Matias

Measuring 120 by 70 centimeters, the canvas by Mayssa Leão explores the meeting of soil and cosmos. The blowtorch, a tool that stems from the artist’s decade working as a professional chef, acts as a direct gesture of intervention and transformation of matter, leaving burn marks on the surface that share space with the paint.

Two series underpin the work. Mayssa Leão’s piece engages with “Somos poeira de estrela” (“We Are Stardust”), shown in her first institutional solo exhibition at the Cais do Sertão Museum, and with the most recent, “Fronteira” (“Frontier”), which examines the tension between beauty and wounds in forests such as the Amazon. Between one and the other, the gaze shifts from sky to soil and to the marks the territory carries.

Mayssa Leão says the references to nature, soil and stars present throughout her output come from her childhood in the countryside. With a degree in environmental law earned in Spain, she returned to the Amazon 20 years after leaving Brazil, an experience that deeply marked her and gave rise to that series.

From left, Célia Beatriz, Mayssa Leão and Isabela Coutinho. Photo: Morgana Nunes

Daughter and granddaughter of women painters, Mayssa Leão was born in Recife in 1983 and is self-taught. She moves between painting, sculpture and installation, linked by a poetic investigation of matter, nature and duration. Her canvases start from an intimate relationship with territory and memory, an axis that brings her work closer to the premise of the space. Her career includes studies in dance and music, as well as work in fashion, television and photography. In the process, chance counts as much as intention: the behavior of fire, the fluidity of paint, the weight of forms and the action of time shape each result.

Works by Mayssa Leão are part of the collections of the Pernambuco State Museum (MEPE) and of Cais do Sertão Museum itself. She also took part in seven art salons in Brazil and abroad, including the Salon des Indépendants in Paris, the Salão de Vinhedo (São Paulo state) and the Salão de Recife. In 2026, she released an artist’s book through Selo Celeste.

More is on the way. Besides this space, Mayssa Leão takes part in another at the Pernambuco show and in one at CASACOR Paraíba. In November, she presents a solo booth at Fliporto Arte 2026.

Visitor information

CASACOR Pernambuco 2026, theme “Mente e Coração” (“Mind and Heart”)
Location: Avenida Engenheiro José Estelita, 1631, São José neighborhood, Recife, Pernambuco
Dates: Oct. 29 to Dec. 13, 2026
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 2 to 10 p.m.; Sundays and holidays, noon to 8 p.m.
Tickets: R$55 to R$110
Mayssa Leão: www.mayssaleao.com.br and @mayssaleao
Célia Beatriz & Arquitetos: www.celiabeatrizarquitetura.com.br and @celiabeatrizarquitetura

Author

Samuel Navarro Serpa
Samuel Navarro Serpa is a journalist and the founder and editor-in-chief of Arch Gallery & Design Magazine, an independent publication connecting art, design, architecture and interior design scenes around the world from editorial offices in New York and São Paulo.