Gustavo Nazareno
Gustavo Nazareno
Nazareno was born in Três Pontas, southwest Brazil, in 1994. His charcoal and oil on canvas works draw on the religions and mythology of the African diaspora. The Orishas—deities venerated by the Brazilian Umbanda cult—are celebrated as protagonists through Nazareno’s brush.
He held his first solo exhibition at Gallery 1957, London in 2021, which was followed by shows at Cassina Projects, Milan (2022) and Museu Afro Brasil Emanoel Araujo, São Paulo (2023).
Sitting within his candlelit studio in São Paulo, self-taught Gabriel Nazareno deftly applies charcoal dust with his fingertips onto the canvas that sits before him. The storm of dark cloud sweeping across his surfaces takes us back to the palettes of the 17th century Italian painters—to Caravaggio, to Leonardo da Vinci—who brought the technique of chiaroscuro, or ‘dark-light’, to its full potential all those years ago.
Irving Penn’s black and white photography and the paintings of Kerry James Marshall—an artist who has radically interrogated the invisibility of Black figures in Western art history—are Nazareno’s contemporary pin-ups. This, coupled with his admiration for traditional religious paintings transform these fables into compelling visual stories.
Sitting within his candlelit studio in São Paulo, self-taught Gabriel Nazareno deftly applies charcoal dust with his fingertips onto the canvas that sits before him. The storm of dark cloud sweeping across his surfaces takes us back to the palettes of the 17th century Italian painters—to Caravaggio, to Leonardo da Vinci—who brought the technique of chiaroscuro, or ‘dark-light’, to its full potential all those years ago.
Irving Penn’s black and white photography and the paintings of Kerry James Marshall—an artist who has radically interrogated the invisibility of Black figures in Western art history—are Nazareno’s contemporary pin-ups. This, coupled with his admiration for traditional religious paintings transform these fables into compelling visual stories.
Featured Work
O Conquistador 2
2023
Próximo Passo
2023
O Conquistador 2
Gustavo Nazareno
2023
50 x 50cm
Oil on linen
Próximo Passo
Gustavo Nazareno
2023
200 x 170cm
Oil on linen
