The highlights of art in Brazil in 2018

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.

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O MASP – São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand Art Museum presents, from February 7th to March 30th, the Video Room: Janaina Wagner. The exhibition marks the premiere of the experimental documentary When the second sun arrives / a comet in your eyes (2025), by Janaina Wagner (São Paulo, SP, 1989), which has as its central element the BR-230, known as the Trans-Amazonian Highway.

Designed to connect the Amazon to the Brazilian coast, the construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway, which took place during the military period, was marked by an extractive perspective and tensions with the communities in the region. The exhibition highlights how the highway transformed the landscape and left profound marks on the environment and the daily lives of local populations, affecting both the culture and history of Brazil.

Curated by Leandro Muniz, assistant curator, MASP, the video room exhibits a trilogy of videos recorded in the Amazon region: Curupira and the Machine of Destiny (2021), Quebrante (2024) and Quando o segundo sol chegar / um cometa nos teus olhos (When the Second Sun Arrives / a Comet in Your Eyes) (2025). In the trilogy, the unfinished highway interacts with figures from Brazilian folklore, creating critical metaphors about the reality of the country. “Janaína Wagner’s work uses mythological or folkloric figures to address real conflicts, as is the case with Curupira. The character carries striking symbolism, especially the detail of her feet moving backwards, which, in Wagner’s work, suggests the contradictions of predatory development,” comments Muniz.

Wagner's experimental documentaries create fictions to reflect on reality, intertwining art history, cinema and literature. The documentary Iracema – uma transa amazônica (1974), by Jorge Bodanzky and Orlando Senna, was a central reference for the artist, who proposed a sequel to the feature film by telling new stories about what happens on the banks of the BR-230 highway. As in Curupira e a máquina do destino (2021), filmed in the district of Realidade (AM), which narrates the encounter between a curupira and the incarnate ghost of Iracema, a fictional character from the 1974 film.

Quebrante (230) takes place in Rurópolis (PA), the first city founded on BR-2024 to serve as a base for the workers who built it. The video follows Dona Erismar, the retired teacher who discovered the caves in the region and became known as “The Cave Woman”.

Closing Janaina's research trilogy on the Trans-Amazonian Highway, When the second sun arrives / a comet in your eyes (2025) announces the approach of a Second Sun and the catastrophe caused by the climate crisis.

Video Room: Janaina Wagner is the first exhibition of 2025 at MASP, which will include audiovisual exhibitions by Emilija Škarnulytè, Maya Watanabe, Inuk Silis Høegh, Tania Ximena and Vídeo nas Aldeias throughout the year. The Video Room is part of MASP’s annual program dedicated to Stories of Ecology.

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Exhibition | construction | open definition
From February 07nd to March 30th
Wednesday to Thursday from 10am to 18pm (entry until 17pm); Friday from 10am to 21pm (free entry from 18pm to 20:30pm); Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 18pm (entry until 17pm); closed on Mondays

A Forts D'Aloia & Gabriel is pleased to inaugurate its 2025 program in São Paulo with the new exhibition of Lucia Lagoon, About two windows. The exhibition marks the artist's return to the city since her last solo show at the gallery, in 2020.

Since he began painting, the window has served as a point of view for Laguna, but it has also guided his compositional decisions: it operates, at the same time, as a system for ordering the plane into squares and rectangles and as a component that destabilizes the scale and creates new views within the painting.

These works produced this year and throughout 2024 and 2023 mark a transitional moment in the artist’s research: Laguna recently moved to a new studio, leaving the one where she had worked and lived for over 40 years. This physical displacement also led to a formal and thematic transformation in her works, and led to the “two windows” alluded to in the exhibition’s title. In paintings such as Paisagem nº 157 (2024), monochromatic blocks and bands in neon tones of green, yellow, orange, red and pink are new elements that expand the artist’s chromatic repertoire while sharpening the possibilities inherent in her practice. A dynamic of visual concealments and emphases creates luminous erasures, presences that also hide. By cutting and crossing the surface, these geometric interventions of planes and lines dehierarchize perspective, subverting proportions. Buildings and architectural fragments nestle within dense representations of forest, crossing vegetal and constructive references.

Anchored in figures, her works become abstract passages. The incisive diagonals, the colored blocks of the surface, the decisive cuts and the transversals that characterize Lucia Laguna's paintings cite constructed elements such as walls, electrical cables, fences and houses. This translates the palimpsestic nature of the urban constitution of Rio de Janeiro. The presence of this labyrinthine landscape imposes a fragmentary apprehension to which the artist responds with observations that are sometimes microscopic, sometimes macroscopic. Her works are born deeply situated in the environment, with a gaze that scrutinizes and expands the surroundings, implicated in the construction, reconstruction and deconstruction of space.

The exhibition is accompanied by an essay written by critic and curator Diego Matos.

Special thanks to Claudia Moreira Salles for the furniture in the exhibition.

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Exhibition | About two windows
From February 08nd to March 22th
Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 19pm; Saturday, 10am to 18pm

Galeria Leme opens the solo exhibition “Atlantic Glow” by visual artist Tiago Sant'Ana, with a critical text by curator Renato Menezes. With more than 30 works, the exhibition reflects research on the dialogues between white and blue, connecting these elements to Yoruba sculptural traditions.

Among the highlights of the exhibition is the “Itutu” series, composed of drawings in cobalt blue pencil on cotton paper. The series is inspired by Yoruba philosophy, which associates a mystical coolness or peace of mind with the serene expression of a face. The works portray male figures in different contexts, exploring textures and contrasts between precise and free gestures. The head, a central element in all the compositions, is a reference to the Yoruba cultural tradition that recognizes it as the point where vital energy resides.

The exhibition, the artist's second solo exhibition at the gallery, also features the video “Apneia,” which explores the dilemmas between speech and listening through a lyrical narrative that combines sound, image, and word. Complementing the exhibition are works made with silk embroidery and compositions that use sugar and blue pigments. These works are a kind of photograph or engraving developed in sugar, a material that is recurrent in Sant'Ana's work due to its historical symbolism linked to colonization in Brazil, connecting Afro-diasporic memory to historical issues.

Tiago Sant'Ana uses multiple artistic languages ​​to stimulate deep reflections on history and memory, understanding the latter as an essential right for social development. His works balance conceptual rigor and aesthetic refinement, offering the public an experience that combines visual sensitivity with critical analysis.

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Exhibition | Atlantic glow
From February 08nd to March 22th
Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 19pm; Saturday, 10am to 17pm

Meeting of works of Guga Szabzon e Thomas Rose and by the curator Cristiano Raimondi, in addition to works created by four hands, Cramp is the result of a year of dialogue and collaboration between the artists. Throughout 2024, they began to visit each other's studios and exchange a bank of images that they kept as references, a practice that, coincidentally, they had already maintained beforehand. These approaches culminated in more experimental actions, which involved the creation of works whose stages were executed alternately by Guga and Thomaz, in addition to works created together. Of the latter, an example is Só não sei se continuo (I just don't know if I'll continue) (2024). The piece had the shadow projected by the bodies of the two artists painted by Rosa on the surface of felt, a recurring material in Szabzon's production.

Cristiano Raimondi — who is responsible for curating Szabzon’s exhibitions at Millan and the Travesía Cuatro gallery in Mexico in 2023 — encouraged the artists to come together after noticing common ground in their respective research. Although their works are very different, especially in terms of the processes and materials they use, they share in their compositions the line and the suggestion of rapid movements, as well as an appreciation for currents of modern art and the second half of the XNUMXth century.

The ball-bouncing movement they maintain is reinstated in the exhibition space, through movements of association between the works and, above all, by another work created by the duo. Quicada (2024) consists of a ping-pong table covered in lines, shapes, paintings and objects produced by the artists. Positioned in the center of the space, the work functions as a metonymy of Calambur — the rapid movement of the ball thrown from one side to the other by the rackets — or that of the gaze of those who follow it — is the same proposed by the trio that conceived the project: to trace an erratic and fleeting path through the universe of each artist, their studio, their works and the artists observed by each one, forming a trail that shuffles and reorders our gaze without static definitions. ORDINIEDESORDINE, 2024, a work by Guga Szabzon inspired by the Italian artist Alighiero Boetti, another shared reference, also permeates this reasoning.

Likewise, the title, Calambur, deals with permutation. In its original meaning, it designates a play on words that brings them together in speech due to a similar sound, even though they have different meanings. Finally, a zine with reference images by Guga Szabzon and Thomaz Rosa was created for the project, in collaboration with designer Pedro Alencar. In flipbook format, the publication accompanies a ball that bounces from page to page, traversing the universe of references that inform each artist's research.

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Exhibition | Cramp
From February 08nd to March 22th
Monday to Friday, 10am to 19pm; Saturdays, 11am to 15pm

A Seva House, in partnership with Galeria Vermelho and curated by Ana Carolina Ralston, invites you to the opening of the exhibition Claudia Andujar: Flora. The exhibition brings together a series of images that exalt the beauty and environmental complexity of nature, allowing a sensory immersion in the vision of the renowned Swiss photographer based in Brazil.

The exhibition presents ten photographs of the Amazon rainforest, taken by Andujar in the 70s. The enlargements of these photographs provide the viewer with an immersive experience, divided into two exhibition areas within Casa Seva, an independent space dedicated to art, nature and sustainability. In the first, the images printed on cotton paper highlight the artist's mastery of light and her poetic composition. In the second area, the projection of three photographs onto fabrics creates an immersive atmosphere, allowing visitors to interact directly with the work.

In addition to its aesthetic impact, Claudia Andujar: Flora captures the artist’s essential message: the importance of preserving the Amazon. Originally published in Realidade magazine in a special edition about the region, these images serve as a warning about environmental devastation and the need to protect this vital ecosystem. As Andujar herself states, “without nature, it is impossible to continue living.”

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Exhibition | Claudia Andujar: Flora
From February 13rd to April 12th
Tuesday to Friday, 11am to 18pm, Saturday, 11am to 15pm

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

Gabriel Branco, Shaolin Shabba e Thiago Almeida, also known as TAF, are the artists that form the collective “Instant in Light Frequency” which opens on February 20 at MITS Galeria. The triad 'light', through Shaolin's works, 'energy' in Gabriel's and 'memory', based on TAF's creations, connect the dozens of works by the three artists that make up the free exhibition, on display until March 29.

With a 'look' at the recent past, more specifically the "80s Generation" that marked a new 'descendant' of artists, but without losing sight of the future, Roger Supino and Guilherme Giaffone, partners at MITS Galeria, explain that "Instant in Light Frequency" has, among other things, the role of showing what is new, what we have now. "We are the result of everything that has happened up until now", they explain about the curation. The exhibition is also in line with the gallery's proposal to bring new perspectives, young artists and foster the contemporary art market.

Thus, different poetics intertwine and result in timeless works with innovative techniques, such as in the works of TAF, who moves within the unstable realm of memory. The artist, who uses alternative printing techniques to produce his works, exploring different supports and materials such as screen printing, cyanotype and manual interventions, makes his photos something permanent, even when there is no longer any form.

In Shaolin's paintings, light and shadow challenge the space of the canvas and offer revelations, enabling the understanding of 'being'. As if in a reminder about the existence of the future, which pulses in his works and the hope that survives in the fragility of everyday life, regardless of the darkness that hangs over doubt and prevents us from looking beyond the immediate. Gabriel Branco, in turn, presents vibrant brushstrokes on his canvases that spread like dissipated energy, which refuses to be rigid. The works are paintings in constant movement that mark tones not as fixed and closed acts, but as flows that do not cease.

Shaolin Shabba Shao, a multidisciplinary artist, divides his time between body research, dramaturgy and painting. Born and raised in Guarulhos, in the far north of São Paulo, he began his studies at the Criar Institute, where he graduated in art direction (2020). Shaolin is currently dedicated to the series “The Light at the End of the Tunnel”, a set of works that explore the concept of hope amidst everyday difficulties. His paintings address the fragility of the future and the way we fail to see tomorrow, reflecting his belief that art is born from lived experiences.

Gabriel Branco is a visual artist from São Mateus, in the East Zone of São Paulo, whose practice moves between photography and painting. His career began in 2018, exploring analog photography as a means of capturing the dynamics of the outside world. This approach culminated in his first solo exhibition, held at Espaço Delírio in 2021, marking his place in the independent art scene. Two years ago, Gabriel expanded his language to abstract painting, developing works that explore astral and energetic issues.

Thiago Almeida (TAF), born in Rio de Janeiro in 1997, is a photographer, visual artist, and art educator. He graduated in Cinema from FACHA, studied at EAV Parque Lage and developed his career in the field of photobooks and artist books. His inspiration comes from creating imaginary worlds from everyday records. In 2021 and 2022, his publications were selected by the ZUM Festival of the Moreira Salles Institute, and in 2023, seven of his publications were acquired by the IMS SP collection. Since 2020, TAF has worked as an art educator in the social project “CDD Skate Arte”, which brings skateboarding and art to children in Cidade de Deus.

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Exhibition | Instant in Light Frequency
From February 21nd to March 20th
Monday to Saturday, from 10 am to 20 pm

One of the greatest interpreters of Brazilian music, Ney matogrosso completes 50 years of career in 2025 and receives tribute at My, an institution of the Secretariat of Culture, Economy and Creative Industry of the State of São Paulo. The exhibition “Ney Matogrosso”, which opens to the public on February 21, will go on sale on February 05. The exhibition follows the artist’s work chronologically, covering each decade of his performance on stage – from his debut as the lead singer of the group “Secos & Molhados” to his most recent album “Nu com minha música”, the first one conceived separately from a show.

Divided into six areas, the exhibition displays hundreds of textile elements such as costumes and props from shows and music videos, as well as documents, album covers, posters and CDs. There are excerpts from an interview given by Ney Matogrosso to the MIS program Notas Contemporâneas, on the occasion of the museum's 45th anniversary. Several emblematic photographs from all phases of the honoree's career are also on display in the exhibition, in works by Madalena Schwartz, Thereza Eugênia, Ary Brandi and Daryan Dornelles.

The curatorship is signed by the general director of MIS, André Sturm, the exhibition design is by architects Juan Cabello Arribas and Viviane Sá and the texts of the exhibition were composed by journalist Julio Maria, author of “Ney Matogrosso – a biografia”, launched by Companhia das Letras in 2021. The exhibition is in partnership with SENAC and supported by Paris Filmes.

“First and foremost, I have been a fan of Ney Matogrosso since the 70s. It is a great pleasure to be able to share with MIS visitors the story of this unique artist on the Brazilian scene, who continues to mobilize the public with the same energy,” says André Sturm, curator and general director of MIS. “Ney was the highlight of MIS’s 45th anniversary celebrations in 2015, when he participated in the program Notas Contemporâneas, telling the audience stories about his life and career. It was an unforgettable moment, and now, ten years later, we bring this new tribute with a unique and very special exhibition.”

The full video with Ney Matogrosso's participation in the Notas Contemporâneas Program – Special 45 years of MIS, from May 2015, can be seen in the Museum's Online Collection, at this link.

The exhibition features set design elements developed by Paris Entretenimento, exclusively for the film “Homem com H”. The film, which is scheduled for release in May, is directed by Esmir Filho and features actor Jesuíta Barbosa in the role of Ney Matogrosso.

SENAC São Paulo holds the entire clothing collection of Ney Matogrosso, donated by the artist himself for maintenance and storage at the institution. Over the past few years, with the pieces as the central object of study for the Fashion Department, SENAC has organized small exhibitions with selected items at various units in the State of São Paulo. The MIS exhibition is the first time that the collection will be seen in its entirety, with more than two hundred items ranging from footwear to headpieces, from the 1970s to the 2000s.

Service
Exhibition | Diluted Territories
From February 21nd to March 30th
Tuesday to Friday, from 10am to 19pm; Saturdays, from 10am to 20pm; Sundays and holidays, from 10am to 18pm

Anderson Novais, also known as Illegal Magoo, opens solo “We are ME”, in the gallery soul of the street, located in Beco do Batman, one of the most emblematic addresses for urban art in the city of São Paulo, on February 22, starting at 14 pm. This is an exhibition that explores the artist's multiple “selves” in moments of new beginnings and escapes into himself, in this labyrinth of being, of being and of chaos, between the pain and the pleasure of walking.

Some of the works are new and around 15, making up the exhibition which, according to the artist himself, marks a new moment in both his personal life and his career. “This exhibition comes after a period of emotional and material losses, so it marks a new chapter, inspired by starting over.” According to Magoo, “we are different every moment, we are in a state of complete mutation according to what we experience, and the works mark these particular ‘reinventions’.”

Figurative works, without presenting specific genres and, at the same time, stylized, are characteristic of the artist. For “We Are Me”, knowing what “is light and what is heavy, embracing fears”, says Magoo, can be perceived through acrylic paint on canvas and wood in which he presents typical fine lines, but without predefinitions, and which are featured in the free exhibition, which will be on display until March 20.

Service
Exhibition | We are ME
From February 22nd to March 20th
Every day from 10 am to 18 pm

Alvorada. The first light. The twilight moment. The clear cream that prepares the arrival of the sun. An invitation to rediscover the world day after day. This moment, which so enchanted the Impressionists in their fleeting desire to capture the chromatic preamble of the early morning, is the poetic thread that unites the works of Deni Lantz e Julia Kater. Whether in Kater's collages and photographic cutouts or Lantz's waxed brushstrokes, what instigates this selection is less the content of their productions than the immersive proposition in a phenomenology of color, shared between eye and skin in the sensitive experience of their poetics. An approximation that accentuates the curious intention of both regarding the figure, whose appearance in their compositions occurs through the edges.

Inspired by the desire to go beyond the apparent shell of things in order to glimpse the sensitive relationships that permeate the depicted theme and its representative, artists use color as a tool for examination. They use the sensuality of chromatic gradations to propose new ways of contemplating that are very similar to the first glimpse of the day, when we open our eyes and see the fleeting shapes of our surroundings in a blur. It reminds us, after all, that dawn is also the signal for awakening, for recovering our senses.

The inaugural sparks of light are suggested here by Lantz in somber tones. The scratched, almost rough texture of some works is due to the experimental use of the paint itself: in its hardened state, it is pressed directly against the support, creating grooves and trails of the path taken by the brush. Others, however, carry with them a silky layer, the result of the use of beeswax together with the chromatic palette. In these different finishes, where the eye can touch the surface, lie the most tender sensations of the qualities of the incidence of light on objects and landscapes.

However, it is ambiguous that reality is, for Lantz, everything and nothing. Everything, since in each of his paintings it is a small indication of the relationship of equity and listening that the artist provides to the earth, to its plant beings, to the fungi that revolve around it, and, ultimately, to the entire natural ecosystem that slips into his pictorial practice, always imbued with his learning from nature. Nothing, because there is a certain amount of imagination on our part, as well as on the part of the artist, in drawing a parallel between such abstract compositions and a specific theme. In this game of bipolar relationships, his painting becomes, fundamentally, a test field in which each piece is the result of a tenuous equation between the desire for the material world and the way in which Lantz manages the space of this dance.

Julia Kater, in turn, has a commitment to the image that is completely different from the premise of classical photography of capturing the ideal moment. Her interest is to free photography from its primary function. Through cutouts, she creates a collage-like drawing of photographic remains of landscapes, superimposing them with the intention of constructing another horizon. In this way, the flat photographic surface, so focused on illusion, achieves three-dimensionality in blocks configured to group the meticulous layers. The gesture of cutting, in turn, creates other drawings – which can be perceived as silhouettes of mountains or sand dunes, or as the transmutation of a rhythmic sensation of a body in response to music or sound.

Here, her works establish an idea of ​​variation through color, traced in the recombination of photographs from different times of the day. The gesture of cutting establishes the rhythm of the reading of the superimposed layers, while analog experiments share the same desire to capture something that escapes photographic representation, focusing on the flaws and blurs that lead the viewer to grope for uncertainty. Cut into strips of skies, seas and incidences of natural light, Kater's compositions rearticulate the meaning of this world to yearn for the arrival of another, unprecedented one, even through the evocation of an imaginary of so many other scenes from any landscape.

Alvorada suggests a play between dawn and dusk. In the almost tactile relationship that Lantz and Kater establish with color, the cycles of the day and their oscillations between light and darkness become allegories mediated by the brushstrokes and compositions gathered here. Licking the sky, feeling the horizon: the invitation to the candor of those who open their eyes and are irradiated by the streaks of morning light as if for the first time.

Service
Exhibition | Alvorada
From February 20rd to April 12th
Monday to Friday, 10am to 19pm, Saturday, 10am to 15pm

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)