Detail from "Maria Firmina dos Reis" (2022). Photo: Paulo Rezende/Masp.
Detail from "Maria Firmina dos Reis" (2022). Photo: Paulo Rezende/Masp.

Sample Joseca Yanomami: our forest land is the first solo show dedicated to the artist's drawings, presenting an expressive part of his production in the 30th anniversary of the ratification of the Yanomami Indigenous Land. It brings together 93 drawings of characters, scenes, landscapes and phenomena from the Yanomami universe, with reference to the forest, its people, their stories and shamanic chants – a record that gives color and shape to the spirits seen only by those who go through the process of become a spiritual leader. “When I learned to draw, I heard the shamans singing and I recorded it in my head to draw later”, says Joseca.

"When Yamanayoma, the female spirit of the bee, continues to walk with her short, steady steps across the land, food grows well. This is Yamanayoma" (2013). Photo: Courtesy Masp.
“When Yamanayoma, the female spirit of the bee, continues to walk with her short, steady steps across the land, food grows well. This is Yamanayoma” (2013). Photo: Courtesy Masp.

A member of the Watoriki community (Yanomami Indigenous Land in the Amazon), Joseca founded his group's first school in the 90s, encouraging children to learn writing and study languages. At the time, she participated in the production of numerous bilingual (Yanomami / Portuguese) leaflets for school education and health programs created by Brazilian NGOs. In the early 2000s, Joseca was the first Yanomami to work in the health field. At that time, he also began to carve forest animals in wood, and soon after, he also began to dedicate himself to drawings that illustrated elements and stories of Yanomami life.

The exhibition also includes the exhibition of the video SOPRO, by the Barreira Y collective, with support from the Yanomami and YeK'wana Leadership Forum and the Instituto Socioambiental. The work features the projection of Joseca Yanomami's drawings, accompanied by speeches by Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, held in 2020 at the national congress, as part of the #foragarimpoforacovid campaign, against mining and the spread of Covid-19.

The individual show Dalton Paula: Brazilian portraits presents 45 paintings that portray black leaders and personalities historically invisible in Brazil.

Detail from "Maria Firmina dos Reis" (2022). Photo: Paulo Rezende/Masp.
Detail from “Maria Firmina dos Reis” (2022). Photo: Paulo Rezende/Masp.

Born in Brasília, Paula lives and works in Goiânia, where he graduated in Visual Arts at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG). In 2021 he participated in the exhibition black encyclopedia, at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo; in 2020 he had his first solo exhibition, Dalton Paula: a kidnapper of souls, in New York, at the Alexander and Bonin Gallery. In 2019 she exhibited at 36th Panorama of Brazilian Art: Sertão, at the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo (MAM). In 2018 he was selected for the Triennale Songs for Sabotage, from the New Museum in New York and had works in the exhibition Afro-Atlantic Stories, at MASP and at Instituto Tomie Ohtake. His work is part of important collections, such as those of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, in Chicago, the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and MASP.

Her artistic practice uses different languages, such as painting, performance, installation, photography and object, to highlight the relationship between image and power. In his repertoire, the central figure is the black body in diaspora, its rituals, with emphasis on the portraits of black personalities that constitute a proposal to review the official historiography of Brazil, in order to re-signify and give prominence to the contributions of Afro-descendant personalities.

The exhibition features works from different phases of the artist's trajectory, from 2018 to the present day, 30 of which are shown for the first time. The works are the result of a long artistic process that begins with the selection of biographies, starts with research and the collection of documents, such as photos and clippings, and then moves on to the production phase.


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