Maxwell Alexandre: Black painter, white figuration

In black painter, white figuration (pintor preto, figuração branca), his first solo exhibition at Carlos Ishikawa, Maxwell Alexandre develops two key bodies of work, Clube (2020–) and Cubo Branco, to examine race, privilege and representation in contemporary art. Born and raised in Rocinha, a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Alexandre began the Clube series after visiting Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, a sports club in the affluent neighbourhood of Gávea. Turning his attention to white bodies, he challenges the presumed neutrality of whiteness in painting and art history. Through scenes of leisure and the symbolism of the white cube, Alexandre exposes the social hierarchies underlying spaces associated with comfort, security and cultural authority, establishing “white figuration” as a deliberate conceptual framework that questions who is represented and how racial identity is constructed within the art world.