“veiled sounds”

The work of artist Dalton Paula proposes a reflection on contemporary issues related to fear, ephemerality, individualism and otherness. In the intimate field, through his body, he also discusses pictorialism contaminated by multiple languages. With critical intelligence, poetic refinement and historical basis, he uses irony and humor to approach subjects that are ingrained in his subjective and personal history as a young black man. His work moves between painting, installation, performance, photography and video, without establishing a hierarchical order between the different media and without losing its expressive poetic potential when circulating between them.

In his recent work, objects are stripped of their original functions to become the medium for painting. According to the artist, the use of silence to communicate, to awaken what is disturbing, makes the viewer rethink the images that imprison them and thus, opens up space to re-present black bodies in other stories and structures.

With a degree in Visual Arts, Paula was one of the guest artists at the 32nd São Paulo Biennial and has held exhibitions at several institutions such as the Higher Institute of Art in Havana (Cuba), the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (Curitiba), the Bispo do Rosário Museum (Rio de Janeiro), the Sé gallery (São Paulo) and the Tomie Ohtake Institute (São Paulo).

Furthermore, he was one of the artists selected for the Rumos Visual Arts Program 2011/2013, from the Itau Cultural Institute and was awarded the Marcantonio Vilaça CNI SESI SENAI 2015 Curatorship Award.