Exhibition explores diversity of Afro-Brazilian artistic production

Afro-Brazilian, a tribute to two Valentins and an Emanoelis the title of the fifth exhibition of FGV Arte, in Botafogo, in the south of Rio de Janeiro. The show brings together more than 300 works, including paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs and historical documents. Exhibition explores diversity of Afro-Brazilian artistic production

With emphasis on Afro-Brazilian artistic production, the exhibition presents different perspectives of cultural representation, highlighting the plurality and richness of art produced by great names as Aleijadinho, Mestre Athaíde and Mestre Valentimand contemporary creations of Rosana Paulino, Felippe Sabino, Lucia Laguna and Sérgio Vidal, among others.

The show is curated by Paulo Herkenhoff and João Victor Guimarães and is on display until August 2025. Gallery access is free And the exhibition will have an educational program, including lectures, short courses, seminars and workshops. According to Guimarães, The Honor Mestre Valentine, Rubem Valentine and Emanoel Araújo.

“We have an understanding that the production of Brazilian art feeds on the production of Afro-Brazilian arts that have been built for a few centuries, although not always occupying the spaces due and corresponding to the quality, dexterity and magnitude of these productions,” said the assistant curator.

Paulo Herkenhoff, in his curatorship, highlighted the juxtaposition and historical complexity of Afro-Brazilian art, bringing an approach that does not hide the slave period of the country.

“The exhibition was conceived as an expanding and intertwining fabric, connecting different times, territories, and perspectives. The show from the coast cloth, an element present in the rituals of African life, to historical sculptures that dialogue with ancestry,” said Herkenhoff.

Brazilian literature also has prominence in Afro-Brazilian, tribute to two Valentins and an Emanoel. In addition to the tribute to Machado de Assis, composed of a portrait and a manuscript, the writer Carolina Maria de Jesus has reproduced, on a whole wall, the well -known dialogue with Clarice Lispector, portrayed by Paulo Mendes Campos.

Geographical amplitude

The conception of Afro-Brazilian cultures in the plural was thought by curators according to geographical differences. The collective brings together artists and thinkers who underlie what can be understood as Afro-Brazilian in the national level. According to João Victor Guimarães, the priority is to highlight artists outside the Sedestino market, such as the Bahian and northeastern artists:

“We have works by artists from various states of Brazil. Afro-Brazilian identities manifest in different ways in different regions. So, in response to this understanding, we seek a geographical expansion for the exhibition. In addition, of course, the technical dexterity, the coherence of production, the relevance of each artist, because we understand that they are from these works that the exhibition is done,” adds Guimarães.

In addition to territorial plurality, the show is concerned with rescuing historically marginalized artists in the artistic circuit. This is the case, as said Paulo Herkenhoff, from the unpublished screen of gaucho artist Maria Lídia Magliani, My baby just cares for younever exposed to the public.