Paulo Nazareth (b. 1977) is a Brazilian

contemporary artist Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art i ...

based in

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte is the List of largest cities in Brazil, sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population of around 2.3 million, and the third largest metropolitan area, containing a population of 6 million. It is the List of cities in Sout ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Nazareth has achieved acclaim for his distinctive approach to contemporary art. His work, which includes multimedia and performance-based pieces, has been exhibited internationally in venues such as the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, New York, and the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

, Washington DC.

Biography

Paulo Nazareth, born in 1977 in

Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais Governador Valadares is a Brazilian municipality in the countryside of Minas Gerais. In 2020, its population was 281,046 inhabitants, thus being the ninth most populated city in the state. It is an economical axis of the middle valley of the Doce ...

, is of Afro-Brazilian descent. Nazareth builds relationships with the diverse individuals he meets while traveling for his artoften long distances by footand these people often become the inspiration for his works of art. In March 2011, he walked from Minas Gerais, Brazil to New York. This solo journey took him five months as he traveled thousands of miles north by foot. He never washed his bare feet, refraining only until he was able to ritualistically wash them in eastern New York's

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

. The trip served as a form of performance, allowing him to gauge people's reactions as he passed through their towns and cities. He focused on their perceptions of his racial identity and appearance. Nazareth's work is included in the permanent collections of museums in his home country of Brazil and abroad in institutions such as the

Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro The Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (, MAM) is a museum located in northeastern Flamengo Park, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

and the

Pérez Art Museum Miami Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)—officially known as the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County—is a contemporary art museum that relocated in 2013 to the Maurice A. Ferré Park in Downtown Miami, Florida. Founded in 1984 as the Cent ...

, Florida.

Education

In 1990, Paulo Nazareth studied under Mestre Orlando, a folk artist from

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

who had moved to

, where he taught Nazareth the art of carving carrancas. Paulo Nazareth earned his BFA in 2005, and his MFA in 2006, both from the

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais The Federal University of Minas Gerais (, UFMG) is a federalIn the Brazilian Higher Education context, ''Federal'' does not mean ''collegiate'' (even though most Federal Universities in Brazil enjoy a similarly collegiate system), but it means ...

in Brazil. In 2010, he returned to the university to study

Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

Artworks

Paulo Nazareth's ethnic heritage and cultural background are major aspects in his works. Through his art, he intends to bring awareness to global issues such as

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...

ethnicization Racialization or ethnicization is a sociological concept used to describe the intent and processes by which ethnic or racial identities are systematically constructed within a society. Constructs for racialization are centered on erroneous gene ...

, and the effects of capitalism in his home country of Brazil, and Latin America as a whole. He primarily works in performance art, painting, and installation. One of the artist's most notable performance pieces is perhaps his 2011 work titled ''Banana Market,'' also known as ''Art Market,'' in which he initially attempted to carry a sack of bananas with him on foot from Latin America to an exhibition Art Basel in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, but the work was thwarted when there would be complications with bringing fruit across international borders. Paulo then decided to display one ton of bananas (along with photos, drawings, and placards) in a Volkswagen bus at the exhibition in lieu of the performance. Nazareth's works often address

decoloniality Decoloniality () is a school of thought that aims to Delinking, delink from Eurocentrism, Eurocentric Episteme, knowledge hierarchies and Being, ways of being in the world in order to enable other forms of existence on Earth. It critiques the p ...

and the reemergence of subjugated forms of knowledge and memory. One recent example of such work is the "Tree of Forgetting," in which Nazareth walks backward and counter-clockwise around a tree in

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

in a reversal of the ritual in which captives of the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

were forced to circle endlessly around particular trees in the hopes that they would forget their origins, culture, and history.

Awards and grants

As a part of his

PIPA Prize PIPA Prize is a Brazilian arts award of the PIPA Institute. From 2010 to 2018, PIPA had a partnership with the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro – MAM-Rio. In 2019, the PIPA Prize's exhibition was held ...

awards in 2016, of which he won the two main categories (PIPA and Popular Vote Exhibition) Paulo Nazareth made another journey on foot from Belo Horizonte to New York to receive his award, then stayed in the state for the next three months for a residency at Residency Unlimited as part of his PIPA Prize award. *2016 PIPA Prize, PIPA Institute, Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil *''2012'' MASP de Artes Visuais – Mercedes-Benz Award, São Paulo, Brazil *2010 12º Salão Nacional de Arte de Itajaí, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Exhibitions

Paulo Nazareth's most recent solo and group exhibitions are ''Paulo Nazareth'', ''Melee,'' ICA Miami, Miami (2019) and ''Lingua Solta,'' Museu da lingua Portuguesa, São Paulo, Brazil (2021).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nazareth, Paulo 1977 births Living people Brazilian contemporary artists Artists from Belo Horizonte People from Governador Valadares