Noemia Marinho is a Brazilian self-taught visual artist living and working in the NYC metro area. Her art focuses on transforming discarded materials into pieces that are truthful and evocative.

Noemia’s early life included periods of great scarcity, as her family was poor and was constantly moving around Brazil’s rural interior. This cultivated in her a thrifty mindset which has found its way into her creative process, as evidenced by the meticulous dismantling and careful use of every last part of the “trash” that makes up her raw material. Growing up as a woman under the thumb of a profoundly sexist culture also left its mark, rooting her techniques not in conventional media, but rather in craft elements like crocheting and weaving, as well as homemaking elements such as baking, ironing, and sewing. While far from a widely accepted path into the art world, her personal history has blossomed into an act of resistance – taking the skills gained through a life of unacknowledged service and using them instead as tools for creativity and self-expression. 

Noemia’s journey toward discarded materials began when she first encountered the art scene in New York City through frequent visits to the Chelsea galleries with her teenage son, now a visual artist in his own right. Mother and son would return home inspired and begin their experiments. In contrast to her first foray into the arts with watercolor back in Brazil, Noemia now gravitated to truly expendable items (plastic bags, milk cartons, bottles, used tea bags, anything she could get her hands on), which made for much freer exploration. The medium suited her perfectly, especially in light of her lifelong dislike of following recipes. “You could make mistakes – it was already garbage to begin with,” she reflects on this phase of joyful discovery; “nothing you made would be a waste of resources.” Her approach involved constant improvisation and adaptability: “If it didn’t come out right the first time, I’d just keep changing it until it did.” 

Over 2019, the metaphorical nature of her work – bringing something new out of the “discarded” – found yet another home in the Gleaning Project: a weekly meeting she began with a small group of low-income New Yorkers, making crafts and art out of discarded materials. This project combines a passion to help others and a desire to see art as a vehicle for renewal, especially in the lives of those treated akin to “garbage” by our society. She hopes to inspire others to share a vision for life that believes nothing needs to be wasted, and a radical transformation is possible.

Noemia holds an MA in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA, and an MA in Missiology from Columbia International University in Columbia, SC.