LONDON.- Lisson Gallery announced its representation of Brazilian artist, researcher, and educator Dalton Paula (b.1982). Known for his powerful engagement with Afro-Brazilian traditions, Paula foregrounds the lives of undocumented Black figures whose contributions to society have been overlooked. Through his practice in painting, photography, video, performance and installation, he helps preserve and continue bodies of wisdom and communities hidden or forgotten by official historiographies. The artist will present a new body of work for his debut exhibition with Lisson Gallery, opening in New York in September 2025. Lisson Gallery (London, New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Shanghai) will represent Paula in collaboration with Martins&Montero (São Paulo, Brussels) and Cerrado Galeria de Arte (Brasília, Goiânia).
Just as the Black personages he depicts were excised from official narratives or documentation due to their actions in opposition to slavery or other forms of injustice, Paula uses paint, along with the symbols and traditions of studio portraiture to weave their memory back into the fabric of history. Through meticulous archival research and, when necessary, a blend of critical fabulation, Paula seeks to restore silenced voices and reclaim their rightful place. He often elevates their portrayal with regal attire and the reverence typically reserved for figures of noble rank. Paula applies gold leaf to the characters’ heads, referencing the significance of the Ori, the spiritual and physical head in Afro-Brazilian religions. For Paula, painting is a remedial act—a means of shaping how future generations will view and understand history.
Paula has produced vast installations and series in ceramic and textile on the tolls left behind by the human labor in the tobacco, gold and cotton exploration in Brazil and across the Global South. The artist traced colonial trade routes by traveling to key cities where these industries were established during the colonial period, recreating the paths taken by these commodities at the time. His work, rooted in postcolonial perspectives, intertwining historical research, religious references and traditional knowledge continues to shape a delicate contemporary discourse on identity, historical reparations, and social justice.
As further evidence of his uniquely transformative practice, Paula founded Sertão Negro in 2020, a center for knowledge transference located in Goiânia, Brazil. This bio-constructed space functions as an art school, residency, studio, garden, and kitchen, spread across a 7,000-square-meter complex. It hosts classes, workshops, study groups, and film screenings that explore creativity and the potential of the cerrado, the surrounding ecosystem. More recently, Paula launched Jatobá Nascente, an autonomous extension of Sertão Negro. This initiative provides six young artists with shared studio space and individual plots of land to build their homes. Inspired by the way of life in former quilombos—communities founded by Africans who escaped enslavement—and terreiros, sacred spaces of Afro-Brazilian religions, Paula envisions a Black community where art, nature, and everyday life can converge.
Paula has garnered significant recognition, including the Chanel Next Prize in 2024, the Soros Arts Fellowship by Open Society Foundations in 2023 and the Marcantonio Vilaça Award in 2019. His recent solo exhibitions include: Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) and Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil (2022-23). Major group exhibitions include: ‘Foreigners Everywhere’, Venice Biennale, Italy (2024); ‘Afro-Atlantic Histories’, touring from Museu de Arte de São Paulo and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in Brazil (2018) to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Dallas Museum of Art, USA (2021-24); ‘Compositions for Insurgent Times’, Museu de Arte Moderna do Río de Janeiro, Brazil (2021-22); ‘Critical Fabulations’, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA (2021-23); ‘Songs for Sabotage’, New Museum Triennial, New York, USA (2018); ‘O Triângulo do Atlântico’, 11th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2018); ‘The Atlantic Triangle’, Goethe-Institut, Lagos, Nigeria (2018) and ‘Incerteza Viva’, 32nd Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2016).
Dalton Paula: This new partnership with Lisson Gallery opens fertile ground for the work to travel — to cross borders, speak other languages, and meet new eyes. Lisson becomes not just a representative, but a channel for the stories I paint — stories of memory, healing, absence and invention. My paintings emerge from a desire to re-inscribe what was left out, to imagine what could have been recorded differently. They are acts of critical fabulation — asking to be seen, published, and placed in dialogue with many. I also see this moment as essential to the growth of Sertão Negro — an essential part of my practice. With Lisson’s support, I hope to deepen its roots and extend its echoes.
Alex Logsdail, CEO of Lisson Gallery: Since I first encountered Dalton’s work in São Paulo about 10 years ago I was captivated. He has an innate ability to capture the soul of a subject with an immediacy that stops you in your tracks. Having visited his Sertão Negro Studio and School of Arts on the outskirts of Goiânia it was eye-opening to understand his greater mission to provide an educational and community platform to a region that has historically lacked any such resource. It’s an honor to present Dalton’s work in New York this September and to help him spread his vision.
