Largest exhibition of contemporary African art opens in São Paulo

On display at Sesc Ribeirão Preto, 31st Youth Arts Exhibition – MAJ presents works by 46 new talents in the visual arts of Brazil, selected from more than 700 entries by curators Camila Fontenele and Tiago Gualberto, on the occasion of the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the exhibition conceived by Janete Polo Melo, former sociocultural technician at the Unit who, in 1989, launched the first edition of MAJ in partnership with the Center for Communication and Arts at the University of Ribeirão Preto (UNAERP).

Showcase and agent of visibility and incentive for the production of artists aged between 15 and 30, over more than three decades, BIGGER has allowed young talents from all regions of the country to express their creativity through diverse artistic expressions, such as paintings, engravings, sculptures, interventions and performances, stirring up the artistic scene in the interior of São Paulo and broadening the discussion of socioeconomic and cultural diversity. As in previous editions, at the opening of the 31st edition, the curators will also announce the three artists who have been awarded the Incentive Prize.

Driven by the purpose of facilitating access to the world of arts and disseminating and projecting new artists to Brazil and the international scene, the collective exhibition at Sesc Ribeirão Preto contributed to the revelation of important names in the visual arts, such as Jaime Lauriano, Marcelo Moschetta, Cordeiro de Sá, Beta Ricci, Felipe Góes, Fabricio Sicardi, Renata Lucas, Nilton Campos, Sofia Borges and Renato Rebouças, as well as artists nominated for the PIPA Prize, such as Carla Chaim (2016), Talles Lopes (2022 and 2024) and Vulcanica Pokaropa (2024), among others.

With over 600 talents presented to the public over the course of 35 years, the 31st edition of MAJ features a panel of ethnic diversity that includes white, mixed-race, black, Asian and indigenous people. In this edition, the artists selected by the curators come from nine states in Brazil – São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Pernambuco, Pará, Minas Gerais and Amazonas – and the Federal District.

Check out the complete list of artists present at the 31st MAJ below:

Abner Sigemi – Amauri – Anna Livia Taborda – Barbara Savannah – Bruno Benedicto – Cho – Cicero Costa – Diego Rocha – Diez – Donatinnho – Estela Camillo – Felipe Rezende – Giovanna Camargo – Gu da Cei – Gustavo Ferreira – Hanatsuki – Isabela Picheth – Isabella Motta – Isabelle Baiocco – Italo Carajás – Janaina Vieira – Juniara Albuquerque – Kaori – Kelly Pires – Kuenan Tikuna – Leid Ane – Lorre Motta – Lucas BRACO – Lucas Gusmão – Lucas Soares – Luiza Poeiras – Mar Yamanoi – Mariana Simões – MAVINUS – Murillo Marques – Nat Rocha – Nike Krepischi – O Tal do Ale – Okarib – Pedro Mishima – Rayane Gomes – Samuel Cunha – Sophia Zorzi – Vitor Alves – Yan Nicholas – Yanaki Herrera

Curatorial process

In the exhibition's curatorial text, prepared based on reflections recorded in a long dialogue between Camila Fontenele and Tiago Gualberto, one concern guided the process developed by them from September 2023 onwards: the complexity of selecting a selection from a significant number of artists aspiring to exhibit their work at the 31st MAJ.

“When observing the 722 entries – which went through three selection phases, initially 114, then 72, until we reached the 46 selected people – I notice the fluid and coherent way in which these works mutually strengthen each other, while also generating tensions and contrasts”, says Camila.

“As important as recognizing the merit of the outstanding research by this group of 722 artists to whom we dedicate ourselves is understanding the formative and educational role built over the dozens of editions of the MAJ. In other words, the gesture of awarding a representative group of this young art should not be separated from the gesture of listening and offering conditions for improvement to the other artists not selected. In curatorial terms, the hundreds of non-selected research projects served as a great chorus of voices to guide us in identifying topics, agendas, social, political and aesthetic demands,” concludes Gualberto.

Opening to the public at 19:30 p.m. on December 5th, at Sesc Ribeirão Preto, the 31st Youth Arts Exhibition – MAJ can then be visited during the unit's normal opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, from 13:30 p.m. to 21:31 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, from 9:30 a.m. to 18 p.m. With free admission, the exhibition will be on display until June 8th, 2025.

Service

A set that mixes sculpture, installation and video reorganizes the gallery's ambiance. Following the procedures of her last solo show at Central, 'Mountains observe us in time-lapse' (2019), Manhães proposes changes to the lighting of the space and uses sound resources to compose the perception of an “invented forest”, as the artist points out.

'The outside of closed eyes' marks a change in the artist's practice, who, after a period of silence, is experimenting with new materials and formal solutions for the works presented. “My interest is to enter into something that has no name, that is neither installation nor sculpture, but rather, all of these things together,” says Manhães.

In this exhibition, Manhães focuses on the invention of organisms and their own spaces. “Beings organized in a circle in this room, as in a megalithic alignment, evoke the distribution of elements in a forest, where beings that we see and do not see live. Mystery surrounds; I feel that there is a ritual taking place, although I am unable to name it,” writes Ana Avelar, who wrote the exhibition’s critical text.

During the opening, which takes place between 15pm and 18pm, artist Mayla Goerisch presents a sound piece that is inspired by and engages with the exhibition 'The Outside of Closed Eyes'.

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Exhibition | The outside of closed eyes
From February 17rd to April 30th
Monday to Friday, 11am to 19pm; Saturdays, 11am to 17pm

After passing through Brasília and Salvador, the exhibition Nhe´ ẽ If disembarks at Cultural BOX of Sao Paulo, reinforcing the presence of indigenous cultures in one of the largest cities in Latin America. Visiting is free, from Tuesday to Sunday, from 9 am to 18 pm.

The exhibition brings together works by thirteen contemporary indigenous artists from different regions, evoking a journey of memory, resistance and renewal through the voices, visions and flows of Guaranis, Pankararus, Mura, Tukanos, Molina, among other peoples. The exhibition mixes already renowned artists with new names: Aislan Pankararu, André Hulk, Auá Mendes, Daiara Tukano, Day Molina, Déba Tacana, Edgar Kanaykõ Xakriabá, Glicéria Tupinambá, Paulo Desana, Rodrigo Duarte, Tamikuã Txihi, Xadalu Tupã Jekupé, and Yacunã Tuxá.

The curators are Sandra Benites and Vera Nunes. Sandra, from the Guarani Nhandeva ethnic group (MS), is a researcher and PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at the National Museum of UFRJ, having become the first indigenous curator in Brazil to join the team of a museum. In turn, Vera Nunes is one of the main women leading large-scale artistic projects in the country and a researcher in public art, gender, race and intersectionalities.

The exhibition was born from academic research by Benites and reveals the desire of indigenous peoples to speak out. It is sponsored by CAIXA and the Federal Government and is conceived and carried out by Via Press – Comunicação & Cultura, which has been operating in the market for 26 years, focusing on the development of cultural projects and strategic communication actions.

Sao Paulo: between rivers

Amidst the buildings and urban landscape of São Paulo, the exhibition delves into the ways in which indigenous peoples view life, community and nature. Since the origin of the world, rivers have been seen as the veins of the earth and channels that connect the physical world to the spiritual, providing sustenance and balance.

Crisscrossed by more than 300 rivers and streams, such as Tietê, Pinheiros and Tamanduateí, São Paulo is a city surrounded by water. However, during its construction, the rivers were buried under asphalt. According to curators Sandra Benites and Vera Nunes, the exhibition incorporates, with a sensitive and feminine perspective, this dichotomy between the spiritual relationship of indigenous peoples with water, and the way in which, in São Paulo, these buried rivers sometimes emerge during intense summer rains, causing a reminder of a still pulsating life.

“Our idea is to reflect on the rivers and the fact that this city is an indigenous land, where its people, like the waters, were also buried and silenced. But it is time for Nhe´ ẽ Se: the desire to speak.”, he explains.

New Tupinambá cloak

The exhibition features the exclusive launch of a cloak developed by artist Glicéria Tupinambá, a native of the Serra do Padeiro village, located in the Tupinambá de Olivença Indigenous Land, in southern Bahia.

The “Assojaba Tupinambá” is a sacred garment used in rituals and made from feathers of native birds. According to the artist, for the Tupinambá people, the garment represents a confluence between the spiritual dimension, the environment, the economy, agroecology and the transmission of knowledge. The cloak also symbolizes the relationship between the invisibility of women and the erasure of indigenous culture over the years.

Tupinambá cloaks are sacred garments made from bird feathers and used by indigenous leaders of the Tupinambá people before European colonization. They symbolized power, spirituality, and belonging and were used in important rituals. During the colonial period, the Portuguese collected several indigenous artifacts, including the cloaks, which were taken to European museums and collections.

The first cloak that Glicéria had the opportunity to see in person was in France. Since then, in addition to demanding the return of these artifacts, the artist has been fundamental in the process of recovering and valuing the culture, recreating the cloaks and rescuing ancestral knowledge.

The constructions

With a mix of artists, the exhibition presents a variety of styles. It is possible to see works more aligned with urban art, such as those by artist Daiara Tukano, a native of São Paulo, from the Yepá Mahsã people, better known as Tukano. In addition, there are artists from Manaus, Auá Mendes and André Hulk, who have already created several graffiti works in São Paulo; and Xadalu Tupã Jekupé, a native of Alegrete, in Rio Grande do Sul.

Also present are the colors of Yacunã Tuxá, from Rodelas, in the backlands of Bahia, and Tamikuã Txihi, an artist who works as a leader of the Pataxó Indigenous Land, in Bahia. Txihi currently lives in São Paulo to help in the recovery of the Jaraguá Indigenous Land, in the west zone.

Aislan Pankararu, from Petrolândia, in the interior of Pernambuco, presents works with clay; and Paulo Desana, from the Desana people, uses neon light to illuminate the faces of indigenous bodies. In the audiovisual field, the photographic records of Edgar Kanaykõ Xakriabá, from Minas Gerais, who dedicates himself to narrating the daily life of his village; in addition to the video art of Rodrigo Duarte.

Also noteworthy are the ceramic sculptures by Déba Tacana, belonging to the Tacana people, in the state of Rondônia, on the border with Bolivia; and fashion designer Day Molina, who presents the work “Encantaria”, a garment made with straw, feathers and other indigenous elements.

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Exhibition | Nhe´ ẽ If
From February 18th to May 11th
Tuesday to Sunday, from 9pm to 18pm

From the 1930s onwards, more precisely after the Second World War (1939-1945), economically and socially vulnerable countries began to be called “underdeveloped”. In Brazil, artists reacted to the concept, commenting, taking a stand and even fighting the term. Part of what they produced during this time will be present in the exhibition Underdeveloped Art, which will be on display between February 19 and May 05, 2025, at Cultural Center Bank of Brazil Rio de Janeiro (CCBB RJ). Curated by Moacir dos Anjos and production of Tuia Art Production, the exhibition will have free entry, upon collection of tickets at the box office or on the CCBB website.

The concept of underdevelopment was common for five decades until it was replaced by other expressions, including emerging or developing countries. “That is why the exhibition covers the period from 1930 to the early 1980s, when there was a transition in the nomenclature in the public debate on the subject, as if it were something natural to move from the state of underdevelopment to the state of development,” reflects curator Moacir dos Anjos. “At some point, we lost the awareness that we still live in an underdeveloped condition,” he adds.

The exhibition, sponsored by Banco do Brasil and BB Asset, through the Federal Law of Incentive to Culture, presents paintings, books, records, sculptures, movie and theater posters, audios, videos, and a large collection of documents. The pieces are from private collections, including two works by Candido Portinari. There are also works by Paulo Bruscky and Daniel Santiago loaned by the Museu de Arte do Rio – MAR.

After the Rio season, the exhibition will move to CCBB Brasília, still in 2025.

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS

Pieces of great importance to national culture are present in Underdeveloped Art. Two works by Cândido Portinari, Burial (1940) and Menina Ajoelhada (1945), are part of the exhibition's collection. Many of the artist's paintings depict despair, death or escape from a territory marked by the lack of almost everything.

Another work that also stands out in the exhibition is Monument to Hunger, produced by the winner of the Venice Biennale, the Italian-Brazilian Anna Maria Maiolino. It consists of two bags filled with rice and beans, typical foods from any region of Brazil, wrapped in a black ribbon. This ribbon is a symbol of mourning, as the artist points out. The public will also have access to a series of photographs by the artist entitled Aos Poucos.

Another highlight of the exhibition is the work Sonhos de Refrigerador – Aleluia Século 2000, by Randolpho Lamonier. “The materialization of dreams has several forms of representation, which include a large volume of textile works, drawings and notes made by the people interviewed themselves, objects from vernacular culture and elements that refer to advertising language”, highlights the artist. “Among the elements that make up the work, I can list, in addition to textiles, LED neons, digital signs, inflatables, banners and handwritten banners, even sound content with detailed accounts of some dreams”, adds Lamonier.

Just like in SP and BH, the playful and lively multimedia installation will also carry out an inventory of consumer dreams of Rio de Janeiro residents, which includes everything from audio and manuscripts of the people interviewed to objects and textile pieces. It will occupy the entire Rotunda of CCBB Rio and, as curator Moacir dos Anjos explains, “it will reflect, starting today, on issues raised by artists from other decades.”

In all, more than 40 artists and other Brazilian personalities will have their works displayed in the exhibition, including: Abdias Nascimento, Abelardo da Hora, Anna Bella Geiger, Anna Maria Maiolino, Artur Barrio, Candido Portinari, Carlos Lyra, Carlos Vergara, Carolina Maria de Jesus, Cildo Meireles, Daniel Santiago, Dyonélio Machado, Eduardo Coutinho, Ferreira Gullar, Graciliano Ramos, Henfil, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Jorge Amado, José Corbiniano Lins, Josué de Castro, Letícia Parente, Lula Cardoso Ayres, Lygia Clark, Paulo Bruscky, Rachel de Queiroz, Rachel Trindade, Solano Trindade, Regina Vater, Rogerio Duarte, Rubens Gerchman, Unhandeijara Lisboa, Wellington Virgolino and Wilton Souza.

During the period in which the exhibition will be on display at CCBB RJ, integrated educational activities will be held, such as the lecture “Art and Underdevelopment in Brazil” with curator and researcher Moacir dos Anjos. The event will discuss the ways in which Brazilian art reacted to the country’s underdevelopment between the 1930s and the early 1980s, and how it incorporated, thematically and formally, the paradoxes of this condition. This discussion is important for understanding the recent political shift in contemporary Brazilian art. The lecture will have simultaneous translation into LIBRAS.

UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN DECADES

The exhibition will be divided by decades. The first axis, People Are Hungry, presents the initial discussions around the concept of underdevelopment. “The artists and writers who began to raise this issue in the 1930s and 1940s,” says curator Moacir dos Anjos.

In the second axis, Work and Struggle, there will be a series of works by artists from Recife, Porto Alegre, among other regions of Brazil where strikes and struggles for rights and better working conditions began to proliferate.

The third section is divided into two. In World and Movement, “politics, culture and art are radically mixed,” explains Moacir. This section contains documents from the Popular Culture Movement (MCP) in Recife and the Popular Culture Center (CPC) of the National Student Union (UNE) in Rio de Janeiro. In the second part, Aesthetics of Hunger, poverty is a central theme in artistic productions, in films by Glauber Rocha, works by Hélio Oiticica and plays by the Opinião group. “At that time there was a lot of inventiveness that ended up being hampered after the 1960s,” adds the curator.

The last part of the exhibition, O Brasil é Meu Abismo, features works from the period of the military dictatorship and artists who reflected their anguish and uncertainty about the future. “These are darker works that describe the paradoxes that existed in Brazil at that time, as in the text O Brasil é Meu Abismo, by Jomard Muniz de Britto,” concludes the curator.

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Exhibition | Underdeveloped Art
From February 19th to May 05th
Open every day from 9am to 20pm, except Tuesdays

A Vilaseca doors opens its annual exhibition calendar with “Crypto Carnival“, the artist’s first solo show Randolph Lamonier in Rio de Janeiro. With a critical text by Bernardo José de Souza, the exhibition presents a set of works set against the backdrop of a carnival in the midst of a financial, geopolitical and environmental crisis.

Bringing together around 30 works produced over the last five years, including previously unseen works, the exhibition's narrative is built on the approximation of different materials and techniques that are part of the artist's repertoire, such as textiles, assemblage, silkscreen printing, painting, video and neon.

The works enunciate a field of sensations as broad as their technical variety: from the intimate scenes described by the still lifes of the Bittersweet Haiku series, to the excesses of misinformation, click-baits and digital noise in Scroll Series, passing through the unusual sarcasm of Tropicália Lixo Lógico.

In this section of Lamonier's recent production, historical and mythological characters and pop culture figures coexist in the excesses of a post-apocalyptic carnival spread across the streets of a Brazil that is melting under a world that is collapsing.

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Exhibition | Crypto Carnival
From February 20rd to April 26th
Tuesday to Friday, 11:00 to 19:00, Saturdays, 11:00 to 17:00

Join us on the day February 22, Saturday, at 18 pm, for the opening of the OPEN WINDS 20, a historic exhibition that has been inaugurating the exhibition calendar for two decadesThe Gentle Carioca in Rio de Janeiro, being an important platform for artists from Brazil and abroad. At each edition, new artists are selected through an open call and a curatorial committee, ensuring a panorama of contemporary production and promoting a vibrant dialogue between different cultures, languages ​​and artistic expressions. 

This year, it is a pleasure to present this exhibition curated by Ana Carolina Ralston, Bianca Bernardo, Catarina Duncan and Thayná Trindade, as well as Georgiana Rothier, founder of the Ybytu Artistic Residency. Together, they selected 34 artists from 607 portfolios, which reflect the different contexts and languages ​​of contemporary art, composing a plural and diverse exhibition. Participating in this edition:

Almeida da Silva, Amori, Anti, Asmahen Jaloul, Badu, Blackout, Bruno Souza, Carolina Marostica, Cecilia Avati, Dandara Catete, Helena Rodrigues, Joao Machado, Ju Morais, Lucas Ururahy, Lui Trindade, Ma Konder, Matheus de Simone, Mayra Sergio, Monica Barbosa, Naia Ceschin, Natalia Quindere, Pearl Santos, Queen F, Shay Marias, Sophia Pinheiro, Stefanie Queiroz, Tayná Uraz, Thais Basilio, Thais Borducchi, Thais Muniz, Trompaz, Vix Palhano, Waleff Dias, Washington da Selva.

Over the last few years, Abre Alas has become more than just an exhibition; it has become a place for celebration, encounters and experimentation, where art takes on the forms and brilliant reflections of the creative power of its participants. In addition to the collective exhibition and the traditional costume contest, the event will feature a program of performances and DJs.

Service
Exhibition | OPEN WINDS 20
From February 22rd to April 26th
Monday to Friday, from 12pm to 18pm, Saturday, from 12pm to 16pm (with prior appointment)