Paulo Nazareth

Yes, and I’m not alone. I am my people. I don’t know exactly how to speak about it, but there is the person – the individual – and then there is the collective – the people. Everything is both, together and separated. I can talk about this place, just as other people can talk about other things. So, yes, I share responsibility with my people: My parents, brothers, community, and ancestors.

– Paulo Nazareth

Paulo Nazareth's work often embodies simple gestures that bring about larger ramifications, conveying an awareness of often ignored issues of immigration, racism, and colonialism in his native Brazil and beyond to the international art world. While his work may manifest in video, photography, and found objects, his strongest medium may be in cultivating relationships with people he encounters on the road - particularly those who must remain invisible due to their legal status or those who are repressed by governmental authorities. In certain aspects, Nazareth uses the romantic ideal of the wandering artist seeking universal truths to usurp facile assumptions about national identity, cultural history, and human value. In our time of unprecedented exposure, where systematic oppression can be documented and broadcasted by anyone with a smartphone, Nazareth's mission to represent the unrepresented is more relevant and persuasive than ever before.

Paulo Nazareth (b. Old man from Borun Nak [Vale do Rio Doce], Brazil / South America) lives and works throughout the world. 

His recent exhibitions include Honey, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York (2025); Patuá/Patois, WIELS, Brussels (2025); LUZIA, Museo Tamayo, Cidade do México (2024); Esconjuro, Inhotim, Brumadinho (2024); En la casa de mi hermano, Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad Guatemala (2023); BIRDMAN, Stevenson, Amsterdam (2022); Stroke, The Power Plant, Toronto (2022); Vuadora, Pivô, São Paulo (2022); Melee, ICA Miami, Miami (2019); Faca Cega, Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2018); The Journal, Institute for Contemporary Arts, London (2014); Premium Bananas, MASP, São Paulo (2012);

Recent group exhibitions include Anozero'24 Bienal de Coimbra, Coimbra (2024); Chosen Memories, MoMA, New York (2023); BRASIL FUTURO: AS FORMAS DA DEMOCRACIA, Museu Nacional da República, Brasilia (2023); Histórias Brasileiras, MASP, São Paulo (2022); Afro-Atlantic Histories, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (2022); 34th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo (2021); Beyond the Black Atlantic, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover (2020); 22nd Sydney Biennial, Sydney (2020); How to talk with birds, trees, fish, shells, snakes, bulls and lions, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin (2018); The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, Prospect.4 Triennial, New Orleans (2017); Soft Power. Arte Brasil, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort (2016); New Shamans/Novos Xamãs: Brazilian Artists, Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2016); Indigenous Voices, Latin American Pavilion 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (2015).