NEIGHBORS CHICAGO 2026
MARIANNA PERAGALLO: POCKET PARK
PREVIEW
PREVIEW
“Bem te vi, andar por um jardim em flor” - Paulinho Pedra Azul
Feia is proud to present Pocket Park, a solo exhibition by São Paulo born and NYC-based Marianna Peragallo for NADA that explores the overlooked, whimsical, and emotionally charged lives of everyday objects. In cities, “pocket parks” are small public spaces wedged into the gaps of the built environment, including leftover lots and corners of blocks, which provide small slices of air in the midst of urban chaos. New York in particular has almost 150 officially recognized pocket parks. Peragallo transforms this idea into a personal, tactile, and charged landscape, offering a tiny sanctuary created within and for the spatial constraints of a NADA Projects booth.
Pocket Park is playful and materially inventive, cultivating care, rest, and intimacy in compressed and overlooked urban spaces. In her practice, Peragallo observes objects scattered through daily life - plastic bags tumbling down sidewalks, rubber gloves abandoned in kitchens, knotted flowers in neglected corners - and animates them into characters with personality and story. These pieces misbehave, resist, and take on new roles, reflecting humor, grief, queerness, and resilience. A sagging garbage bag may nurture a late uncle’s Pothos plant, transforming a vessel of discard into one of care. Rubber gloves echo the tenderness of her grandmother’s hands, while knotted Anthuriums - a bisexual flower - hold a fragile flame, embodying endurance and attention. Together, these objects form a “pocket park”, a small, self-contained ecosystem where discarded materials become collaborators in sustaining life, imagination, and connection.
As the exhibition invites viewers to consider their relationship to overlooked objects, Peragallo’s work also traces her experience as an immigrant navigating in-betweenness. Her pieces occupy transitional spaces, existing among us yet apart, carrying private histories while participating in broader urban life. Pocket Park emphasizes emotional resonance, conceptual rigor, and the poetic animation of discarded materials, offering a moment of meditation, curiosity, and tenderness within NADA New York. Feia presents this project to highlight Marianna Peragallo’s thought-provoking practice, offering visitors a microcosm of humor and vitality in the midst of the fair
.Pocket Park is playful and materially inventive, cultivating care, rest, and intimacy in compressed and overlooked urban spaces. In her practice, Peragallo observes objects scattered through daily life - plastic bags tumbling down sidewalks, rubber gloves abandoned in kitchens, knotted flowers in neglected corners - and animates them into characters with personality and story. These pieces misbehave, resist, and take on new roles, reflecting humor, grief, queerness, and resilience. A sagging garbage bag may nurture a late uncle’s Pothos plant, transforming a vessel of discard into one of care. Rubber gloves echo the tenderness of her grandmother’s hands, while knotted Anthuriums - a bisexual flower - hold a fragile flame, embodying endurance and attention. Together, these objects form a “pocket park”, a small, self-contained ecosystem where discarded materials become collaborators in sustaining life, imagination, and connection.
As the exhibition invites viewers to consider their relationship to overlooked objects, Peragallo’s work also traces her experience as an immigrant navigating in-betweenness. Her pieces occupy transitional spaces, existing among us yet apart, carrying private histories while participating in broader urban life. Pocket Park emphasizes emotional resonance, conceptual rigor, and the poetic animation of discarded materials, offering a moment of meditation, curiosity, and tenderness within NADA New York. Feia presents this project to highlight Marianna Peragallo’s thought-provoking practice, offering visitors a microcosm of humor and vitality in the midst of the fair
Marianna Peragallo
Marianna Peragallo is a Brazilian-American artist who makes anthropomorphic sculptures that re-imagine everyday objects designed for human consumption. Each sculpture speaks to the potential for acceptance, care, and love for even the most peripheral things. Peragallo has shown at galleries and institutions around the United States, including Cleo the Project Space (Savannah, GA), McColl Center (Charlotte, NC), Torrance Art Museum (Los Angeles, CA), andRegularNormal (New York, NY). She received her BFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and an MFA from The School of Visual Arts, New York.
Feia
Founded by husband-duo Thomas Martinez Pilnik and Jake Cavallo, Feia celebrates failure, brings people together, and curates beautiful spaces with unconventional features. Feia, meaning Ugly in Portuguese, is more than just an insult. It expresses curiosity, intrigue, excitement, novelty, beauty, disgust, and everything in between. Feia recently constructed and opened a brand new 1200 square foot gallery building in Los Angeles