RIO DE JANEIRO.- On Saturday, June 14, starting at 3 p.m., artist Miguel Afa opens his new solo exhibition, O vento continua, todavia (The wind, however, goes on), at Paço Imperial, in downtown Rio de Janeiro. The show features a set of works produced between 2023 and 2025, and marks a moment of synthesis and affirmation of the artist's career, which began in 2001 through graffiti in the streets of Complexo do Alemão, where he was born and raised.

A graduate of UFRJ's School of Fine Arts, Afa moves from the street to institutions with a pictorial language deeply marked by his personal journey. His work proposes a poetic reconfiguration of the image of the peripheral body, countering the stigmas of marginalization with scenes that evoke affection, care and resistance. Working with an enigmatic color palette, Afa creates scenes that don't soften, but intensify the complexity of his narratives. In his work, color is discourse, and the gesture of fading is, more than technique, an act of remembrance and positioning. His paintings simultaneously reveal the visible and the invisible, tensioning the gaze and the social imaginary.

The exhibition's introductory text is signed by Jeovanna Vieira, who reflects on the title of the show, inspired by a phrase by Vincent van Gogh: “The windmills no longer exist; the wind, however, goes on.” Vieira writes: “The exhibition title is a fragment of a phrase by Van Gogh who, in a letter to his brother Theo, provocatively wrote: ‘The windmills no longer exist; the wind, however, goes on.’ Faced with the itinerary-work made by Miguel Afa, we are guided by the wind that presupposes primordial stubbornness, which justifies everything still being.”

O vento continua, todavia (The wind, however, goes on) will be on show at the Paço Imperial until August 10th. One of the country's most important cultural centers, with a strong symbolic charge in Brazilian history, the Paço — a historic 18th century building that has hosted some of the most important exhibitions on the national scene — is the stage for essential dialogues on art, culture and Brazilian memory. It is now hosting an exhibition that reaffirms Miguel Afa as a powerful and rising voice in the country's contemporary art scene.