Exhibition “Africa: the artist as collector”

O Afro Brazil Museum Emanoel Araujo, institution of Secretariat of Culture, Economy and Creative Industry of the State of São Paulo, managed by Afro-Brazilian Museum Association – Social Organization of Culture (AMAB), opens the exhibition “Africa: The artist as collector”, curated by Gabrielle NascimentoThe exhibition invites the public to explore the Museum's collection of African art from the perspective of its founder, Emanoel Araujo, revealing how his artistic, intellectual, and curatorial choices contributed to the formation of one of the most important collections dedicated to African cultures in Brazil.

“This exhibition stems from the understanding that every collection is also a narrative. By bringing together works, documents, photographs, and records of Emanoel Araujo's trajectory, we seek to show how his perspective helped to build not only a collection of African art, but a way of thinking about the relationships between Africa, the diaspora, and Afro-Brazilian identity,” highlights curator Gabrielle Nascimento.

Bringing together more than 200 works, the exhibition presents sculptures, paintings, masks, documents, photographs, books, records, fabrics, and three-dimensional objects that help to understand not only the construction of the African collection of the Emanoel Araujo Afro-Brazilian Museum, but also the trajectory of Emanoel Araujo as an artist, collector, curator, and museologist.

Composed mainly of pieces from the Museum's own collection, the exhibition brings together traditional and contemporary works, with a focus on productions from Nigeria and Benin. The exhibition's layout highlights the relationships established by Emanoel Araujo between Africa and Brazil, revealing how cultural, religious, and aesthetic references present on the African continent influenced his artistic production and his museological project.

The exhibition title refers to the series of woodcuts Suite Africa I, II and III, produced by Emanoel Araujo in 1977 after his participation in the II World Festival of Black and African Art and Culture (FESTAC 77), held in Nigeria. The experience marked his first trip to the African continent and had a significant impact on both his artistic production and the initial formation of his collection.

More than just presenting objects, the exhibition aims to reflect on collecting as a way of constructing narratives. By examining documents, acquisition records, photographs, and works gathered over decades, the public gains access to little-known aspects of Emanoel Araujo's work and the ways in which he built connections between memory, art, and the African diaspora.

The exhibition also brings together traditional and contemporary African art, bringing together everything from Gelede and Egungun masks and Yoruba-inspired sculptures to works by contemporary African artists incorporated into the museum's collection at different points in its history. The proposal highlights the diversity and complexity of African cultural productions, moving away from stereotypical interpretations and emphasizing their dialogues with modernity and global art circuits.

Service
Exhibition | Africa: The artist as collector
From June 26th to September 13th
Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 17 pm (stay until 18 pm)