Lia Menna Barreto

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1959, Lia Menna Barreto is a Brazilian artist currently based in Rio Grande do Sul.

Her formal education occurred at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Design in 1985. She is most famous (or infamous, rather) for her deconstruction of childhood through the transmogrification of dolls and plastic toys. Katia Kanton, writing in Poliester Magazine, describes her work this way:

"In her strange formal operations, Lia Menna Barreto defies the sweetened way of looking at the world of children. Her radical vision engenders a relevant social commentary that is involved with and questions the oppression of the everyday experience, full of mutilations and losses and feelings of safety and danger."

Several galleries have featured solo exhibitions of Lia Menna Barreto’s work. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Galeria Fortes Vilaça has hosted her [ Projeto 2001 ], Origem do Afeto, and assorted other works in the last decade; in Porto Alegre, her work has appeared in the Diário de uma Boneca, the Exercícios Afetivos (MARGS), the Galeria Iberê Camargo, and the Galeria Arte e Fato; and in Rio de Janeiro, the Thomas Cohn Arte Contemporânea show featured her works in 1990, 1992, and 1995.

References

• Katia Kanton. "Lia Menna Barreto defies the sweetened way of looking at the world of children." Poliester Magazine, vol 6, n 21, 1997/98