Cristine Balarine is a contemporary Brazilian artist based in the Aeolian Islands, Sicily. She holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from The Bartlett, University College London and a foundation in Florentine Renaissance art history. Drawing on her Indigenous, African and European heritage and shaped by life on a remote Sicilian island, Balarine’s paintings reveal lyrical and unreliable narratives, both distant and familiar, of urban and natural landscapes, whilst her collages use everyday objects and fabrics to narrate human-centred, humorous tales of quotidian living.  

 

Cristine’s work has been presented internationally, including a charity exhibition and auction at Sotheby’s London in 2024, curated by Dr. Madeleine Haddon of the Victoria and Albert Museum. She was the first prize winner of ArtBAM, a competition run by the Munich-based gallery Konsum 163. Finalist in both the London and Florence Biennials in 2023, she has also participated in key global art events such as World Art Dubai and Saatchi Art’s The Other Art Fair. Her solo exhibitions have been showcased at the Lighthouse Museum in Sicily and at her artist-led gallery in the Aeolian Islands.

 

Her collaborative practice spans visual art, sound and performance, frequently engaging with multidisciplinary artists, musicians and DJs to create cross-disciplinary installations and live interventions. Her ongoing project with Berlin-based OWN! Collective, Fault Lines, brings painting into dialogue with music, forming immersive, synaesthetic spaces that challenge the conventional boundaries between visual and auditory perception. Cristine is also a co-founder of The Non-Museum Project, a guerilla initiative to take over transitional or abandoned places around the globe transforming them in unapologetic realms of making and experiencing art.