Anna Bella Geiger is widely recognised as one of the most significant contemporary artists working in Brazil. A pioneer of video art in the country, she also emerged as a leading figure among the first generation of Latin American conceptual artists.

Later in her career, Geiger turned to metal engraving and the use of gouache, marking the beginning of her renowned Visceral Phase, which was influenced by the Nova Figuração (New Figuration) movement. Composed from cut metal plates, the images from this period combine explorations of engraving techniques with the organic nature of the human body, creating geopolitical references as though the fragmentation of bodily parts could generate new maps. At this juncture, cartography became a central theme in her work, raising critical questions about territory, borders, and cultural hegemony.

By the 1970s, Geiger’s work adopted a markedly experimental tone—an approach she viewed as the only viable mode of artistic production. Rejecting the frameworks of modernism, she fully embraced contemporary practices, integrating methods such as photomontage, photogravure, photocopy, and video. Her thematic scope expanded accordingly, producing works with incisive political commentary and a strong commitment to critical discourse. During this period, her interests broadened to include anthropology and visual studies, giving rise to her concept of “geo-poetry,” a prescient body of work that engaged with major global and Brazilian socio-political concerns.

From the early 1990s onwards, Geiger further diversified her material approach. Her Fronteiriços (Borderlines) series is a distinctive highlight of this period, in which map-like configurations, orthogonal lines, and diagrams appear within old iron archive drawers filled with wax. These boxes—disassembled from their original cabinets—serve as metaphors for knowledge and memory, suggesting how circuits of information crystallise certain objects and relationships within the collective imagination.

Today, Anna Bella Geiger continues to produce vibrant, thought-provoking work. Her recent collages, made with a wide range of media, return to and expand upon the core themes that have defined her influential practice.