Mari Salmonson

Timeline

A Practice Shaped by Memory, Color, and Place

For Mari Salmonson, art is a way of keeping stories alive and discovering new ways to belong.

Born in Brazil and now based in New York, Mari explores the connections between cultural heritage, personal memory, and the places that shape our identities. Her visual language draws from Brazilian folklore, popular imagery, tropical flora and fauna, and the expressive possibilities of color, pattern, and symbolism.

Her artistic journey began in fashion design and expanded into painting, illustration, murals, public art, and contemporary visual narratives. Across these different forms, her work returns to a shared curiosity: how do the images and stories we inherit continue to shape the way we see ourselves and the world?

Rather than approaching cultural traditions as fixed narratives, Mari brings them into new visual conversations, allowing familiar symbols to evolve through contemporary perspectives and personal experiences.

Her practice moves between the intimacy of an illustration and the scale of a public mural, between artworks created for contemplation and designs that become part of everyday life.

Through each medium, she invites viewers to encounter something familiar, discover something unexpected, and reconnect with the stories they carry.