Cristiane Mohallem's artistic production encompasses painting, embroidery, and drawing. The artist’s focus is on nature, the spaces of the house, and the process of image creation. She understands that it is up to her to shape and define the reality perceived in these three universes.
Born in Sao Paulo in 1974, Mohallem holds a degree in Clinical Psychology from the Catholic University of Sao Paulo. For seven years, she coordinated an art project at the renowned renal transplant unit at Hospital do Rim e Hipertensão, UNIFESP. This project led her to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was awarded a merit scholarship and completed a MAAT. Her interest had been to study the benefits that community art projects bring to the physical, mental and spiritual health of communities. In 2008, she was awarded the Community Service Award, Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, for her work at a public school in Chicago.
During her master’s degree program, she discovered the world of visual arts - especially her enthusiasm for panting, often visited the museum attached to the school, and attend some painting and drawing classes. These possibilities represented a unique experience for the maturing of her regard. In 2012 she held her first solo exhibition in São Paulo. In 2014 she stopped working as a psychotherapist to focus exclusively on her art studio work.
Mohallem began her career as an artist painting and drawing, only a few years later she discovered embroidery when she visited a project where women gathered round to embroider. It was then, when she came across a basted thread on a fabric, that she intuited the expressive potencial of this language.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
- "O Mundo Além das Palavras", Galeria Babel, Sao Paulo, SP
2021
- "Árvore Adentro" (Tree Within), A CASA - Museu do Objeto Brasileiro, São Paulo, SP
2018
- “O Lugar das Coisas” (The Place of Things), Gallery Art Hall – Florence Antônio, São Paulo, SP
2017
- “São Paulo por um Fio”, Centro Cultural São Paulo (Sao Paulo Cultural Center) – Exhibition Program
- “Música em seus Dedos” (Music in her Fingers), A Casa - Museu do Objeto Brasileiro (Museum of the Brazilian Object), Sao Paulo
2016
- “Canção da Estrada” (Song of the Road), DConcept Escritório de Arte, Sao Paulo
2015
- “A Gravitação do Amor Misterioso pelas Coisas que nos Ignoram” (Gravitation of the Mysterious Love of Things Unaware of Us), Qualcasa, Hermes Artes Visuais, São Paulo
- “Chuva de Ouro” (Gold Rain), Museu de Arte de Blumenau, SC
2014
- “Aktion”(experimental project), 2025 Kunst und Kulture e.V, Hamburg, Germany
2013
- “Entre Mãos: Pinturas” (Between Hands: Paintings), Contraponto, Sao Paulo
2012
- “Céus são Céus” (Skys are Heavens), Dconcept Escritório de Arte, São Paulo
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
- Compartiarte, (beneficent exhibition), Centro Brasileiro Britânico, Sao Paulo, SP
2022
- "17th International Triennial of Tapestry", Central Museum of Textiles of Lodz, Poland
- "Um Olhar sobre o Acervo: Rendas e Bordados", A CASA - Museu do Objeto Brasileiro, Sao Paulo, SP
2021
- "34th annual Materials: Hard + Soft International Contemporary Craft Exhibition", Greater Denton Arts Council, Denton, Texas, USA
2020
- "Coastlines", Sanger Gallery - The Studios of Key West, FL, USA
- "100 Works on Paper Benefit", Kentler International Drawing Center, Brooklin, NY
2019
- "IV Bienal do Sertão" (IV Biennial of Sertão), Museu do Piauí, Teresina, PI, 01-31 Oct
- “Compartiarte” (beneficent exhibition), Centro Brasileiro Britânico, Sao Paulo
2018
- “Hic et Nunc”, Picta Escritorio de Arte de Gabriela M. Carneiro de Loyola, Joenville, SC
- “Refluxo”, curated by Nacy Betts, Vão Espaço Independente de Arte, Sao Paulo
- "1o. Salão de Arte Visuais da Galeria Rabieh", Sao Paulo
2017
- “Árvores, Galhos e Folhas”, Galpões Santo Antônio, Fazenda Santo Antônio, Amparo, SP
- “No Notice Gave She, but a Change”, (dialogue between a Brazilian, a Japanese and a German artist), Bridget Stern Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
- “Seeing It Again: Nature Reconsidered”, Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana, USA
2016
- “Yelling At the Sky”, Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation Curatorial Fellowship Exhibition, curated by La Keisha Leek, Chicago
- “Seeing It Again: Nature Reconsidered”, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, CO, USA
- "Open Studio", Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest - Chicago,USA
2015
- "Programa Exposições 2015", MARP – Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto Pedro Manuel-Gismondi – SP
- “Exhibition: Gallery’s Collection”, DConcept Escritório de Arte, Sao Paulo
- "Open Studio", The Studios of Key West, USA
- “Contraprova, Vol. 1”, Paço das Artes, São Paulo
- “É Sempre Bom Estar Acompanhado”, W espaço Arte (org. grupo Latitude 22), Ribeirão Preto – SP
2014
- "13 Salão Nacional de Arte Jataí" (13o Art Salon of Jataí), GO
- “Tre Cose” (Three Things), 33 Officina Creativa, Toffia, Italy
- “Open Studio”, Palazzo del Gatto, Casaprota, Italy
2012
- “Quase a Última Foto” (Almost the Last Picture), Grupo Aluga-se, Casa Cultural Mario Quintana, Porto Alegre
- "39 Salão de Arte Contemporânea de Santo André"– SP, (39th Contemporary Art Sallon of Santo André)
RESIDENCIES
2019 – Sacatar Institute, Bahia, Brazil
2019 – Ragdale Foundation, Arts and Nature Week, Chicago, USA
2016 – Ragdale Foundation, Chicago, USA
2015 – The Studios of Key West, USA
2014 – 33 Officina Creativa, Toffia; and, Palazzo del Gatto, SabinArti Associazione Culturale,, artist residency, Casaprota, Itália
AWARDS
2017 – Selected by Centro Cultural São Paulo (Sao Paulo Cultural Center) as a recipient of its Solo Exhibition 2017 prize – Programa Exposições.
2012 – Travel grant, Programa de Difusão Cultural, Ministério da Cultura, Brazil
2008 – Community Service Award, Albert Schweitzer Fellowship – Fellow for Life
2007 – Merit scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
PUBLICATIONS (articles, reviews)
2019 – Textiel Plus Magazine, Netherlands
2017 – “Flamboyant”, Scoundrel Time (journal of literature), USA, +https://scoundreltime.com/flamboyan/
2013 - MOLINA, Camila, “O Impacto das Mãos”, O Estado de Sao Paulo, 25.02.2013
EDUCATION
2008 – The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA - Master of Art in Art Therapy
2000 – Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo – Psychology
Licensed Clinical Professional Psychology, February, 2001
1996/97 – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan,Italy
2003-2005 – Drawing studio at Feres Khoury’s atelier, São Paulo
OTHERS ACTIVITIES
2020 - "Pequizeiro, The Cosmic Tree" (making a collective needlework), NGO Turma que Faz e Casa de Cultura São Jorge, Alto Paraíso, GO 2019 - "Color and Stiches", SESC Paulista, Sao Paulo, August 6 to 9th (workshop)
2019 - "Arts and Nature Week" (textile workshop for children), Ragdale Foundation, Chicago, USA
2012 and 2009 - SESC Santo Amaro e Ipiranga, São Paulo – SP (drawing, painting and collage workshops)
2007 - Namaste Charter School, Chicago, USA (art therapy)
2007 - Diamond Headache Clinic, Chicago, USA (art therapy)
2004-2006 - Instituto da Criança e do Adolescente com Doenças Renais, ICRIM (Child and Teenager’s Renal Diseases Organization), a non profit organization, São Paulo Brazil (created and coordinated the Play, Art and Psychotherapy Program)
2001-2006 - Hospital do Rim e Hipertensão – HRH, Fundação Oswaldo Ramos, UNIFESP/EPM - Federal University of Sao Paulo/ Medical School. São Paulo, Brazil (created and coordinated the Play, Art and Psychotherapy Program)
Presented in Conference
2012 – 2nd International Conference on Jung and Visual Arts – Art And Psyche in the City. Lecture: “Graffiti and Photography in and of the City of São Paulo: Reflections on the City’s Character and the City as a Place where Residents Invent their Lives Daily”, NYU, New York, July 19-22
2008 – 1st International Conference on Jung and Visual Arts – Art and Psyche: Reflection on Image. Lecture: “Art and play therapy in the treatment of organic disease: Researching on a renal transplant unit”, San Francisco, USA, May 1 – 4
2006 – 15th Annual Society for the Arts in Healthcare Conference. Lecture: “The art of toy making”, Chicago, USA, April 26 – 29
