Overview

I draw on the relationship between mundane objects and objects that are completely institutionalized. I am very interested in making it all uneven, with no present hierarchy.

– Paulo Nimer Pjota 

The starting point of Paulo Nimer Pjota’s works is the nature of collectively originated phenomena. Studying iconographies of shared popular and art-historical authorship, the artist draws from the urban culture that nourished his cultural upbringing and awakening to interpret and express new ways of thinking through overlapping forms. In the way hip-hop and other analogous forms of urban culture remix known forms through sampling, Pjota bridges temporalities, clustering, for example, archetypal counter-cultural elements with Greco-Roman and precolonial societies’ aesthetics. Renderings of plants, isolated words, cartoon figures, tattoos, wayward scrawls, accents from seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish still lifes, and artifacts from pre-Columbian and Hellenic art float in constellations of suspended forms. The resulting dreamlike compositions conjure mythological atmospheres and ritualistic landscapes united by a cyclical weaving together of plural, rapturous dialogues. The artist’s nearly insomniac practice is determined to unearth what – at the other end of the flux of artistic production – remains embedded in memory while at the margins of official history.

By juxtaposing everyday objects with references from the past, he critiques the inefficiency of hierarchical knowledge systems that separate elite and popular culture. Pjota’s compositions reveal a production of images and symbols, produced, remixed, and circulated, often exposing social inequalities in the process. As curator Mateus Nunes remarks, “To remix history is to rebel against the hegemonic and violent cultural system, defending an inevitable contamination of time, history, and image by the confrontation between symbols, spiritualities, and cultural expressions.”

Paulo Nimer Pjota (b. 1988, São José do Rio Preto, Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo.

The artist’s solo exhibitions include Os alquimistas estão chegando, Mendes Wood DM, Paris (2025); A Lua e Eu, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam (2025); Na Boca do SolMendes Wood DM, New York (2024); Do cômico e dotrágicoMendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2023); Every Empire Breaks Like a VaseThe Power Station, Dallas (2021); Cenas de Casa, Caixa de PandoraIvani and Jorge Yunes Collection, São Paulo (2019); MedleyMendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2018); The history in repeat mode – imageMendes Wood DM, Brussels (2017); The history in repeat mode – symbolMaureen Paley and Morena di Luna, Hove (2017).

Additionally, his work has been included in institutional group exhibitions such as 38th Panorama de Arte Brasileira: Mil Graus [A Thousand Degrees]Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM-SP) at Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC USP), São Paulo (2024); La mirada encendidaFundacion Osde, Buenos Aires (2024); X Pink 101X Museum, Beijing (2024); Private Passion - New Acquisitions in the Astrup Fearnley CollectionAstrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2019); Trouble in ParadiseKunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam (2019); Sea of DesireFondation Carmignac, Porquerolles (2018); The Marvellous Cacophony57th October Salon, Belgrade (2018); O Triângulo Atlântico, 11th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre (2018); Painting |or| NotThe KaviarFactory, Lofoten (2017); Soft PowerKunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort (2016); the 19th Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo (2015); Here ThereQatar Museums – Al Riwaq, Doha (2015); Imagine BrazilAstrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2013); DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal (2015); 12th Lyon Biennale, Lyon (2013).

Selected Artworks
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Cacto reiki azul, 2024
    Cacto reiki azul, 2024
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Noite com fauno e borboleta, 2024
    Noite com fauno e borboleta, 2024
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Ballet triadico 2, 2021
    Ballet triadico 2, 2021
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Black Painting part. 1, 2017
    Black Painting part. 1, 2017
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Cemitério de jóias (heróis e amores), 2018
    Cemitério de jóias (heróis e amores), 2018
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, De manhã bem cedo quando a lua sai, 2023
    De manhã bem cedo quando a lua sai, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Dois vasos e toalha quadriculada, 2023
    Dois vasos e toalha quadriculada, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Festa e Ouro, 2018
    Festa e Ouro, 2018
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Jardim de faunos, 2023
    Jardim de faunos, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, jardin mítico, 2022
    jardin mítico, 2022
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Mito e chuva, 2023
    Mito e chuva, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Na boca do sol, 2023
    Na boca do sol, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Noite com Dionísio, 2023
    Noite com Dionísio, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Noite com frutas, 2023
    Noite com frutas, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Noite com Julia, 2023
    Noite com Julia, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Paisagem com objetos da coleção, 2023
    Paisagem com objetos da coleção, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Paisagem de neve, 2023
    Paisagem de neve, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Sob o sol da gênesis e o ovo de Heliópolis | Under the sun of genesis and the Heliopolis egg, 2020
    Sob o sol da gênesis e o ovo de Heliópolis | Under the sun of genesis and the Heliopolis egg, 2020
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Solstício de inverno com arranjo de flores, 2023
    Solstício de inverno com arranjo de flores, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Teeth showing, 2020/2021
    Teeth showing, 2020/2021
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Vaso de bixo, 2023
    Vaso de bixo, 2023
  • Paulo Nimer Pjota, Vaso de morcego, 2023
    Vaso de morcego, 2023
Videos
  • In the studio: Paulo Nimer Pjota

    Jul 5, 2023
    Watch
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