Luisa Zimmer Ritter

Luisa Zimmer Ritter is an artist, working between painting, drawing and photography. With a cinematographic thought, Luisa creates narratives that change light in each developed series, bringing vivid motifs to the colours of an intensity that redefines visual perspectives. Additionally, in her practice, Luisa often uses photographs of her family to trigger memories that serve as a base for her paintings.

Luisa Zimmer Ritter was born in Montenegro, Rio Grande do Sul, a city of German settlement in south Brazil. In Porto Alegre, she studied with the painter and art historian Cláudia Barbisan (1965-2015). In 2008, in search of new opportunities, Luisa Zimmer Ritter moved to São Paulo where she initially studies at the Higher School of Advertising and Marketing (ESPM) before deciding to completely dedicate herself to painting. Since then, she has worked as assistant for various painters and photographers. In 2012, joining the 30th São Paulo Biennial organising and curatorial team revealed for her as a crucial, perspective changing experience. Moreover, being able to work in the most influential museums in São Paulo, she gained experience in the fields of museology, restoration, and conservation.

“When I was a child, I used to draw on the walls of my house pretending them to be archaeological remains of the indigenous peoples who used to live there. The big walls and the production process, until it was exposed, inspired me to create works that I was imagining seeing in those sublime places.”

Luisa Zimmer Ritter has been living in Berlin since May 2018.

“I moved to Berlin with the goal to study art and to continue developing my artistic practice. Being a woman and an artist present in the queer community, the last has been challenging to do in Brazil.

I left my home country during a social and political crisis. Since 2013, most of the Brazilian people were experiencing difficulties as serious as they were at the time of the military dictatorship. Now, Brazil is going through one of the worst health crises in the world.”

Luisa Zimmer Ritter on Social Media