Josi

Subverting the traditional practices of scrubbing and sun-bleaching clothes through art, I appropriate the stain as an index of research into natural pigments – reclaiming “dirt” and working to overturn preconceptions and inhabit a broader space that exists on a more sustainable plane.

– Josi

Josi’s practice stems from the strength of her hands, maneuvering, sculpting, and deviating away from the comfort of Western art history. This dynamic unfolds through creations imbued with the presence of her body, her works becoming extensions of the artist's hands, serving as conduits of storytelling, embodying material and ancestral connections through an intertwining of natural pigments. In this way, Josi explores themes of memory, survival, and the embodied rhythms, in continuous dialogue between learned and lived knowledge, of life in a dialogue between her body and the material heritage of Minas Gerais. Her paintings and ceramics, created without predetermined sketches, allow alchemies and organic pigments to interact with temperature, humidity, and geological temporalities, unfolding across surfaces like layers of sediment.

Shaped by personal experiences that span territories and communal traditions – chores, labor, and an agricultural vernacular – her work is informed by communities across the Jequitinhonha Valley, Itamarandiba, Carbonita, and Caeté. From early sketches made in notebooks during bus rides, which reveal a deep belief that art is not a privilege, to the wisdom gathered through daily labors such as wringing and scouring clothes, traditional techniques of sun-bleaching, and toiling in the fields, these experiences are woven into her multilayered creative process. Humble yet profound acts of manual labor – kneading, gathering, washing, watering – are enacted in the way she works with clay and pigments, transforming them into artistic expressions that evoke the textures and narratives of life at the river’s edge.

Josi’s art meditates on labor, perseverance, and the reclamation of history, affirming the presence of people and communities who have been separated from their traditions and spirituality yet continue to resist the forces of colonial erasure. Josi’s practice invites reflection on interconnectivity through a shared space of resilience, both social and ecological.

Josi (b. 1983, Itamarandiba, Brazil) lives and works in Belo Horizonte.

Some of the artist’s solo exhibitions include grains of water, drops of earth, Mendes Wood DM, New York (2024); arrastar chãos, juntar imbigos, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2024); Quarar reverso, Piccola Galeria Casa Fiat de Cultura, Belo Horizonte (2022). Additionally, her work was included in group shows such as 39th Panorama of Brazilian Art: After It's All Said, MAM, São Paulo (2026); Histórias da ecologia, MASP, São Paulo (2025); Quando atitudes se tornam escola, Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte (2025); Alumbramento, Museu Nacional da República, Brasília (2025); Encruzilhadas da Arte Afro-Brasileira, CCBB Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (2024); Espelhos d’água viva, Solar dos Abacaxis, Rio de Janeiro (2024); Cosmo/Chão, Oficina Francisco Brennand, Recife (2024); Imagens que não se conformam, Memorial Minas Vale, Belo Horizonte (2023); Ensaios para o Museu das Origens, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2023); O corpo invisível da memória, Museu da Inconfidência de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto (2023); Premiados PIPA 2022, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro (2022); Ainda que tardia, Museu Casa Padre Toledo, Tiradentes (2022); Entre o isolamento e o contato, Escola Guignard UEMG, Minas Gerais, Brazil (2020).