Galeria MaPa

About the Gallery
Since 2015, the Galeria MaPa has focused on rediscovering influential Brazilian artists from the 1940s to the 1980s. It acts directly in the primary art market, when the artist is still alive, or through the heirs' estate. Its exhibitions are directed through a research process in private collections. Its modus operandi is shaped by collaborative curators, whose aim is to trigger a historical recovery. Galeria Mapa is present at the most prestigious national art fairs, such as SP-Arte and SP-Foto, Art-Rio, among others and works alongside renowned curators and Brazilian art institutions.

About the Presentation
Galeria MaPa will exhibit paintings by the Afro-Brazilian artist, scholar, and statesman Abdias do Nascimento alongside ritualistic objects used in Candomblé religious ceremonies. Nascimento was a dedicated Pan-African activist and a leader in Brazil’s Black movement. His remarkable legacy includes founding the Black Experimental Theater in Rio de Janeiro in 1944 and the Museum of Black Arts in 1950. He began to paint in the late 1960s, while living in self-imposed exile in the United States during the military dictatorship in Brazil. Nascimento’s works, exploring Afro-Brazilian themes and ideas of freedom and transcendence, will be presented with a collection of sacred iron tools associated with the African-derived religion of Candomblé, assembled by the artist and collector Alberto Kaplan. Nascimento’s paintings are represented in museum collections including the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), Instituto Inhotim, and Pinacoteca de São Paulo.