Pollyana Quintella is an independent curator, writer and researcher based in Rio de Janeiro. 

 

She studied Art History at Rio de Janeiro Federal University (UFRJ) and holds a master's degree in Contemporary Art and Culture from Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), having completed a dissertation on art critic Mário Pedrosa.

 

Quintella has produced several exhibits between institutional curatorship, and independent and experimental actions, in which she brings together visual arts, poetry and literature. 

 

She is adjunct curator of the exhibit FARSA - Língua, Fratura, Ficção: Brasil- Portugal, scheduled to open in April 2020 at Sesc Pompeia (SP) and temporarily suspended on account of the coronavirus pandemic. Coordinated by Marta Mestre, the exhibition gathers historical and contemporary works of more than 40 Brazilian and Portuguese artists, reflecting on the limits of language.

 

In the institutional field, she collaborates since 2018 as a researcher and assistant curator for the Museu de Artes do Rio (MAR), where she worked on exhibits such as "Tunga: o rigor da distração” (2018), curated by Luisa Duarte and Evandro Salles; she acted as co-curator on “O Rio dos Navegantes” (2018-2019), alongside Evandro Salles, Marcelo Campos and Fernanda Terra, and on “Mulheres na Coleção Mar” (2019), having joined the museum program to increase the number of women artists in the museum collection and to engage women employees and colaborators of the museum in semiannual activities. She was assistant curator in the exhibition “Adriana Varejão - por uma retórica canibal”, curated by Luisa Duarte (MAM-BA/MAMAM - 2019). In addition, she integrated the curatorial and research team of Casa França-Brasil, under the direction of Marcelo Campos (2016), taking part in the conception of various of the institution’s exhibitions. 

 

In extra institutional practice, she has held projects featuring curatorial games and portable exhibitions, experimented commissioning new art works, and developed practices that promote dialogue with emerging artists, with propositions that test institutional limits. Her main proposals are "nanica I exposição portátil" (2017-2018), 9 + 1 (2015-2017) and Rejuvenesça: poesia expandida hoje (2018).

 

She teaches Brazilian Art History in open courses in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, mainly focused on art criticism and modern and contemporary Brazilian art.

 

Quintella has contributed to various magazines and journals such as the Select Magazine, Continente Magazine, Pessoa Magazine, Folha de São Paulo, Jornal Agulha, USINA Magazine, A Palavra Solta Magazine, Hysteria, Revista Philos, among others.