Observer Arts Interviews: Artist Gustavo Nazareno

In 2018, Brazilian artist Gustavo Nazareno left Minas Gerais for São Paulo because his aunt, a practitioner of the Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda, “got an intuition [that] something was going to happen.” (Umbanda is based on the idea of possession by the spirits. It was created in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in the 20th Century from a blend of African religions with Catholicism and Spiritism.) Upon his arrival, he visited his aunt’s Terreiro, where the congregation practices Candomblé, a religion started in 16th-century Brazil by enslaved West Africans from elements of traditional African religions and Portuguese Catholicism. It was during his experiences at the temple that Nazareno became aware of the Candomblé and Yoruba religions that would inspire his charcoal drawings and paintings. The Terreiro was also where he received his first commissions.

Those early charcoal drawings have since evolved into the work in “Bára,” a series that the artist started in 2019 as an offering for Orixá Exu, a deity worshipped in some Afro-Latin and African religions that is said to be the conduit between the mortal world and the pantheon of Orixás. Some thirty charcoal drawings from the series of over 400 works are now on view in a solo show curated by Alexandre Sarfati at Opera Gallery’s Bal Harbour, Florida, space for Nazareno’s debut solo presentation in the United States.

The series is “very personal, kind of connected with my faith, my references and everything I believe,” Nazareno, a 2024 Jabuti Award prize winner, told Observer. His body of work shines a light on Afro-Brazilian spirituality, culture and identity, and even more of it can be seen in “Afro-Latin Baroque,” showing concurrently at Opera Gallery Miami. There, faith, visual culture and resilience within Afro-Brazilian and Latin American traditions and histories are explored. Curated by Alexandre Sarfati, the show’s title is in part a reference to enslaved Africans building Catholic churches like Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário Dos Pretos (The Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black People) in Brazil.

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That show features sixteen new paintings Nazareno developed after researching the African hand in the Brazilian Baroque. Because Baroque tells the story of slavery and colonization in the Americas, especially Latin America, he is also studying the African hand in Catholicism, Latin churches and the Latin imagery of Catholicism and religion.

One of the artworks in “Afro-Latin Baroque,” The Dance of Xangô (2025), shows a woman wearing what looks like Gele, a traditional head tie synonymous with the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Another, May This Painting Reach Your Heart – A Tribute to Chico Rei (2025), a painting of a black horse draped in red cloth, symbolizes Orixá Exu and Chico Rei—a King from the Kingdom of Congo who was captured by Portuguese slave traders who sent him to Brazil. He is believed to have later secured his freedom and that of others in Minas Gerais, where Nazareno was based before moving to São Paulo.

The artist pulls from sources including personal narratives, fables, religious tales and spiritual and cultural histories of Africa, Europe, his native Brazil and South America, which are reflected in both his charcoal drawings and oil paintings. As an homage and for his blessings, the artist shared that he always starts a body of work and exhibitions with a work for the deity Exu because he is the “connector between the divine and the human.” Attire for Exu (2024), an oil on linen painting showing Exu draped in cloth, was the first painting he created for the show.

Nazareno is “really glad and grateful” for the opportunities to bring conversations about faith and religion to a global audience through his practice. “I think the main focus of my work is to highlight the beauty of my faith [and] my beliefs. But mostly I think it’s very important to talk about these religions in art but being more universal with it.”

Gustavo Nazareno’s “Bára” and “Afro-Latin Baroque” are on view at Opera Gallery’s Bal Harbour and Miami locations through March 29, 2025. Additionally, his work is included in “One Becomes Many,” a group exhibition at the Perez Art Museum Miami featuring ten Black Brazilian artists through April 16, 2026. Next year, the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center in Chicago will present a solo exhibition of his work curated by Danny Dunson.