Marianna Peragallo is a Brazilian-American artist and educator based in New York, NY. Her recent anthropomorphic works are playful self-portraits about the cross-sections of love, labor, endurance, and support. The intimately sized sculptures are contorted in impossible gestures. They have mutated beyond the possibilities of the human body to perform a small, sometimes absurd task: provide light, hold boundaries, or support another sculpture. She started thinking critically about love in reaction to normalized abuse of power and hatred, realizing that many people long for love but don’t know how to be loving to themselves or to others. The playful quality of the work creates a space reminiscent of children’s books and childhood, where we first learn (or mislearn) about love. Though the small scale of her work may seem endearing, the gestures can be surreal, dark, and humorous. Love is an action that requires tremendous effort and stretches us beyond the confines of comfort. Her sculptures and animations work toward this in their gestures and are learning (not always successfully) what loving can look like. Marianna has exhibited in the United States, including recent group exhibitions at Hales Gallery, New York, NY, Local Project, Long Island City, NY, The School of Visual Arts Chelsea Gallery, New York, NY, DCTV, New York, NY, The Every Woman Biennial, New York, NY, and Wassaic Projects among others. She has done public projects for the New York Restoration Project at the Suffolk Street Community Garden, New York, NY, and Art Lot, Brooklyn, NY. Marianna attended the Byrdcliffe Artist Residency in Woodstock, New York in 2014, the Wassaic Projects Residency in October 2019, and the Mass MoCA Assets for Artists residency in December 2019. She has a BFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, an MFA from The School of Visual Arts, New York, and teaches at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York.