Paulo Nimer Pjota is a Brazilian artist who predominantly works in oil, tempera and acrylic on canvas. His large-scale paintings draw on art history, popular culture, mythology and folk tales, merging multiple references to create new, imaginary scenarios. His approach borrows from the sampling and remixing practices adopted in Brazilian hip-hop and rap music, as well as on his experience as a graffiti artist as a teenager.
“I don’t really know what life is like without painting. It is in everything I do, the movies that I watch, the books that I read. They might not have anything to do with art, but I can find something in them that I might be able to use.”
– Paulo Nimer Pjota in an interview with The Guardian
This exhibition in the Main Gallery showcases a new series of paintings against an expansive mural painted directly onto the gallery walls. Magical environments are populated by mythical characters, animals and imaginary beasts. The sun, stars and moon are recurring motifs in Pjota’s practice, as are vases, shells and other vessels, often brimming with flowers and plants. The presence of music is also implied, with a three-headed beast in one work playing the trumpet, horn, drum and sax all at the same time.
Bringing together disparate elements from the past, present and an imaginary world, Pjota introduces us to a new universe where established ideas of value are dismantled and redefined, making way for an alternative future. Unlike a story book in which a clear narrative unfolds, Pjota’s works leave the viewer to make their own sense of his fantastical scenes.
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