Dalton Paula: Brazilian Portraits

“Paula’s beautiful, ambitious project illuminates forgotten histories, honoring the overlooked.” –Andrea K. Scott, The New Yorker The Brazilian artist Dalton Paula (born 1982) works across painting, installation, photography and sculpture. Drawing on rigorous visual research, he seeks to critically interpret historical events, particularly as they have affected Black people in Brazil—a country that, after Nigeria, contains the second-largest population of African descent. Dalton Paula: Brazilian Portraits showcases a sampling from the portrait series Paula embarked on in 2018, a tribute to the Black Brazilian men and women who fought for freedom and justice over the course of several centuries but have been systematically erased from the country’s dominant historical narrative. Through his portraits (one of which—a gripping rendering of the Brazilian slave rebellion leader Zeferina—appears on the cover of the much-acclaimed 2021 volume Afro-Atlantic Histories), Paula provides much-needed dignity, visibility and recognition to these valorous figures.