A Forts D'Aloia & Gabriel is pleased to present Purple apple, first solo exhibition of Willa Wasserman in Brazil, in FDAG Gardens, in São Paulo. The exhibition brings together intimate, small-scale paintings on linen and brass, alongside large-scale works on fabric, produced between New York, where the artist lives, and São Paulo, where she is currently undertaking a residency at Casa Onze.
Wasserman investigates issues of intimacy, gender, and metamorphosis, intertwining references to classical painting and material culture with contemporary expressions of the queer experience. Working on fabrics and metals, the artist treats the medium as an active participant in each composition. Oil, silverpoint — traces obtained by rubbing silver on a prepared surface — and chemical processes are applied in such a way as to allow oxidations, stains, and tonal variations to emerge and remain visible. His approach to figuration avoids bodily sharpness or rigidly defined contours, favoring amorphous spaces where forms float and dissolve. Historical techniques are reimagined to give rise to mutable bodies and atmospheres, simultaneously luminous and dark, suspended in a state of continuous emergence.
For some time now, Wasserman has worked with still life as a way of thinking visually, treating objects as a silent composition rather than a symbolic display. She paints floral arrangements and garden scenes, as in From the garden to the new squat (2026) [From the garden of the new occupation], in which the pigment seems to merge with the metallic surface, giving the images a quiet depth and atmosphere. In Still life with purple apple, empty bowl, lock rake (2026) [Still life with purple apple, empty bowl, lock pick], the instrument introduces a note of transgressive access, referencing lived experiences of trans identity and ways of traversing spaces beyond normative structures.
Service
Exhibition | Willa Wasserman: Purple apple
From February 25th to April 18th
Tuesday to Friday 10am to 19pm, Saturday 10am to 18pm
