Arjan Martins is the 2018 PIPA Awardee. Martins began to develop his pictorial technique as a student at the School of Visual Arts of Parque Lage with a keen interest in the African diaspora and Afro-Atlantic migrations subject matter during Colonial Brazil. His paintings and drawings incorporate signs and codes excluded from history and retell the history of colonization and slavery from the viewpoint of the oppressed. In these works, the artist portrays immigrants and African descendants engaged in daily activities from the moment they landed on the new continent to present-time. As described by Luis Camillo Osorio- Chief Curator at MAM Rio, “in a very explicit way, Arjan’s paintings highlight the colonization and slavery oppression aches – which are still so present in our daily social conflicts – but they do this with a violent exuberance of form, that doesn’t let themselves to domesticate in illustration”.
In 2018, Martins was invited to participate in the Recortes da Arte Brasileira exhibition at the Art Berlin Fair and the exhibition ‘Fratura’ curated by Paulo Myiada at Instituto Tomie Ohtake in Sao Paolo. Solo shows include: 2017 ‘O Estrangeiro’, Stiftung Brasilea, Basel, Switzerland, ‘Et Cetera’, A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. In 2016, ‘Nó’, curadoria por Wilson Lázaro, Manoel Macedo Arte, Belo Horizonte, Brasil. 4, ‘Américas’, curadoria de Paulo Sergio Duarte, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.In 2-01
Group exhibitions include: 2018 ‘Recortes da Arte Brasileira’, Berlin Art Fair – Berlin, Alemanha; ‘EX AFRICA’, CCBB (Centro Cultural do Banco do Brasil) Brasil (curadoria Alfons Hug); ‘Fratura’, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (curadoria Paulo Myiada); 11º Bienal do Mercosul – Porto Alegre, Brasil; 2016 ‘Em polvorosa – Um panorama das coleções MAM Rio’, Museu de Arte Moderna – MAM, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; ‘Leopoldina, princesa da Independência, das artes e das ciências’, Museu de Arte do Rio. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; ‘Do Clube Para a Praça’, Arte Clube Jacarandá, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; 2015 ‘Espaço Arte Contemporânea’, Arte Clube Jacarandá, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. ‘Rio setecentista, quando o Rio virou capital’, curadoria de Myriam Andrade Ribeiro, Anna Maria Monteiro de Carvalho, Margareth Pereira e Paulo Herkenhoff, MAR, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. 2014 ‘Do Valango à Favela’, curadoria de Clarissa Diniz e Raphael Cardoso, Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, RJ ‘Josephine Baker e Le Corbusier no Rio – Um Caso Transatlântico’, curadoria de Inti Guerrero e Carlos Maria Romero.
http://agentilcarioca.com.br/artista/arjan-martins/
Arjan Martins’ residency is made possible through the ongoing studio partnership with Residency Unlimited with support from PIPA Prize. Image: Arjan Martins, Atlântico, 2016. Acrylic paint on canvas, 200×390 cm.