Sidney Amaral: Identidade

In his solo show Identidade [Identity], Sidney Amaral (b. 1973, São Paulo) presents works that establish relations between Africa and Brazil through via issues that are common to both of these locations, such as violence and race discrimination. The impossibility of tracking their origins, faced by African descendants due to the absence or expunction of ancient slavery records, and the alleged, yet unreal, Brazilian racial equality are some of the themes explores by the artist. Amaral uses photographs as a documental base for his paintings. For Rodrigo Villela, the curator of the show, this procedure is an index of the deep relation that the artist establishes between historic archives and artistic production.

Sidney Amaral holds a BA in Fine Arts from the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP). In 2012, he was granted the Funarte Prize for Black Art, which culminated in the exhibition “O banzo, o amor e a cozinha de casa”, at the Museu Afro Brasil, in 2015. In 2014, he participated in the exhibition “Histórias Mestiças”, at Instituto Tomie Ohtake, with a piece that was commissioned by curator Adriano Pedrosa and later acquired by the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo. In 2013, he participated in an artistic residency at the Tamarind Institute (USA), where he researched the theme of race identity in Brazil and America.