Paulo Nazareth

Paulo Nazareth, born in 1977 in Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais, Brazil, is of Afro-Brazilian descent. Nazareth builds relationships with the diverse individuals he meets while traveling for his art{{Em dash}}often long distances by foot{{Em dash}}and these people often become the inspiration for his works of art.{{Cite web|title=Paulo Nazareth: Melee {{!}} Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami|url=https://icamiami.org/exhibition/paulo-nazareth/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=icamiami.org}}{{Failed verification|date=May 2021}}

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.{{Cite journal|last=Lewis-Kraus|first=Gideon|date=19 March 2015|title=The Walker {{!}} Frieze|url=https://www.frieze.com/article/walker|access-date=2021-05-10|journal=Frieze|issue=170 |language=en}} 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. {{Cite web|last=Basciano|first=Oliver|date=30 October 2014|title=Paulo Nazareth|url=https://artreview.com/september-2012-paulo-nazareth/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=artreview.com|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Strecker|first=Márion|date=2015-11-05|title=Sobre oprimidos, mestiços e migrantes|url=https://www.select.art.br/sobre-oprimidos-mesticos-e-migrantes/|access-date=2021-05-11|website=seLecT|language=pt-BR}}

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 and the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida.{{Cite web |title=Guarani-Asteca (Guaraní-Azteca) • Pérez Art Museum Miami |url=https://www.pamm.org/es/artwork/2020.011 |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=Pérez Art Museum Miami |language=es-MX}}

In 1990, Paulo Nazareth studied under Mestre Orlando, a folk artist from Bahia who had moved to Belo Horizonte, where he taught Nazareth the art of carving carrancas.{{Cite web|title= Carrancas de Mestre Orlando e Paulo Narazeth|url=https://www.otempo.com.br/entretenimento/magazine/carrancas-de-mestre-orlando-e-paulo-narazeth-1.1446969|access-date=2024-02-05|website=O Tempo|language=portuguese}}

Paulo Nazareth earned his BFA in 2005, and his MFA in 2006, both from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. In 2010, he returned to the university to study Linguistics. {{Cite web|title=Paulo Nazareth|url=http://www.artspace.com/paulo_nazareth|access-date=2021-03-19|website=Artspace|language=english}}

Paulo Nazareth's ethnic heritage and cultural background are major aspects in his works.{{Cite web|last=Dalley|first=Jan|date=2021-03-22|title=From Picasso to Beeple: artists as pioneers|url=https://www.ft.com/content/3b9d3759-eef7-4d32-9a7f-7b0fd2e362f4|access-date=2021-05-10|website=www.ft.com|language=en-GB}} Through his art, he intends to bring awareness to global issues such as globalization, immigration, ethnicization, and the effects of capitalism in his home country of Brazil, and Latin America as a whole.{{Cite web|last=Wood|first=Mendes|title=Paulo Nazareth: About|url=https://mendeswooddm.com/en/artist/paulo-nazareth/about|access-date=February 17, 2021|website=Mendes Wood DM}} He primarily works in performance art, painting, and installation.{{Cite journal|last=Veneroso|first=Maria do Carmo Freitas|date=2013|title=Notas sobre Paulo Nazareth: abordagens sobre a água|url=https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/revistadaufmg/article/view/2696|journal=Revista da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais|language=pt|volume=20|issue=2|pages=170–187|doi=10.35699/2316-770X.2013.2696|issn=2316-770X|doi-access=free}}{{Citation|last=Sterzi|first=Eduardo|title=14. The Wanderer, the Earth: Nature and History in the Work of Sousândrade and Paulo Nazareth|date=2021-02-09|url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780823289134-015/html|work=Form and Feeling|pages=225–246|editor-last=Bessa|editor-first=Antonio Sergio|publisher=Fordham University Press|doi=10.1515/9780823289134-015|isbn=978-0-8232-8913-4|s2cid=233971224 |access-date=2021-05-11|url-access=subscription}}

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, but the work was thwarted when there would be complications with bringing fruit across international borders.{{Cite web|last=Reiser|first=Emon|date=4 December 2015|title=Artist Paulo Nazareth travels from Brazil to Art Basel Miami Beach using nothing but his feet and buses - South Florida Business Journal|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2015/12/04/brazilian-artist-walks-buses-for-10-days-to-get-to.html|access-date=2021-05-10|website=www.bizjournals.com}} 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.{{Cite web|title=Tiroche DeLeon Collection - Nazareth, Paulo b.1977 / Banana Market/ Art Market|url=http://www.tirochedeleon.com/item/304912|access-date=2021-03-19|website=www.tirochedeleon.com}}

Nazareth's works often address decoloniality 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 in a reversal of the ritual in which captives of the Atlantic slave trade were forced to circle endlessly around particular trees in the hopes that they would forget their origins, culture, and history.{{Cite web|last=Ayuko|first=Tayo|date=17 March 2023|title=Paulo Nazareth's Tree of Forgetting and the 'Great British' forgetting|url=https://www.counterfire.org/article/paulo-nazareths-tree-of-forgetting-and-the-great-british-forgetting/|access-date=2024-01-06|website=www.counterfire.org}}

As a part of his PIPA Prize 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{{Cite web|last=STEVENSON|title=STEVENSON|url=https://www.stevenson.info/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=STEVENSON|language=en}}

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).{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1227036055|title=Paulo Nazareth Melee.|date=2021|others=Alex Gartenfeld, Gean Moreno, Hirmer Verlag|isbn=978-3-7774-3732-3|edition=1. Auflage|location=München|oclc=1227036055}}{{Cite web|last=Scott|first=Jesse|date=2019-05-15|title=The Best Things to Do in Miami This Week|url=https://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/best-things-to-do-in-miami-this-week-may-16-through-may-22-11171673|access-date=2021-05-10|website=Miami New Times}}

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Category:1977 births

Category:Living people

Category:Brazilian contemporary artists

Category:Artists from Belo Horizonte

Category:People from Governador Valadares