São Paulo-based artist Paulo Nimer Pjota recombines elements of art history, popular culture, and universal symbolism into striking paintings and sculptures that bend boundaries between epochs. Foregrounded in his work are concepts of art historical “sampling” and remixing, which serve as both homages to the countercultures vital to his upbringing in Brazil’s interior, as well as critiques of globalization and rigid systems of anthropological or cultural categorization. Drawing from a vast network of visual and theoretical sources, prominent among them vernacular arts and architectures, hip-hop music, antiquity, and Joseph Campbell’s seminal writings on myth and universality, his work looks to reconsider geographical and cultural specificities in ways that underscore the rapidly shifting world around us. In his newest work, Pjota channels these familiar leitmotivs alongside earlier explorations of object and symbol into a distinct visual language, where sinuous, organic forms and a skillful palette culminate in dreamlike images that are uniquely his own.
Paulo Nimer Pjota (b. 1988, São José do Rio Preto) lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. Recent solo exhibitions include Kunstituut Melly, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Mendes Wood DM, Paris, New York, São Paulo, Brussels; François Ghebaly, Los Angeles; Maureen Paley, London; The Power Station, Dallas and Ivani e Jorge Yunes Collection, São Paulo. His work has been included in institutional group exhibitions such as 38th Panorama of Brazilian Art, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo; X Museum, Beijing, China; Astrup Fearnley, Oslo; Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam; Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles, France; KRC Collection, Voorschoten, Netherlands; Biennial of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Serbia, among others.
Pjota’s works are held in public and private collections, including Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Denver Art Museum, Fondation Carmignac, Marciano Art Foundation, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Museo Jumex, and Pérez Art Museum Miami, among others.
