Rodrigo Braga
In both Rodrigo Braga’s video and photographic work, nature, blood, pain, death and struggle feature heavily. Born in the jungle-locked city of Manaus in Brazil’s Amazon, the artist typically performs bold, if not grotesque acts in rural landscapes, often with living (or not) animals, which he then documents as film or photography. In a striking series of videos the artist showed at Sâo Paulo’s Bienal, the artist writhes in the mud, caught in a rope hunter’s trap in a forest clearing. The contrast - to be trapped, hunted, in a place as wild and empty as the jungle - is as vivid as the greens and the browns that fill the frame. In another video he is tethered to a goat, but the image is cut with a fish grasping for air on a slab. Barge’s images are arresting and jolting, but also poetic, sensitive, and at times, political at the same time.
Braga has held solo exhibitions at Galeria do BNDES in Rio de Janeiro, Paço das Artes in São Paulo, Museu de Arte do Sâo Paulo, Museu de Arte Moderna Aloisio Magalhães in Recife, among many other Brazilian galleries and institutions. He is the recipient of numerous prizes …
In both Rodrigo Braga’s video and photographic work, nature, blood, pain, death and struggle feature heavily. Born in the jungle-locked city of Manaus in Brazil’s Amazon, the artist typically performs bold, if not grotesque acts in rural landscapes, often with living (or not) animals, which he then documents as film or photography. In a striking series of videos the artist showed at Sâo Paulo’s Bienal, the artist writhes in the mud, caught in a rope hunter’s trap in a forest clearing. The contrast - to be trapped, hunted, in a place as wild and empty as the jungle - is as vivid as the greens and the browns that fill the frame. In another video he is tethered to a goat, but the image is cut with a fish grasping for air on a slab. Barge’s images are arresting and jolting, but also poetic, sensitive, and at times, political at the same time.
Braga has held solo exhibitions at Galeria do BNDES in Rio de Janeiro, Paço das Artes in São Paulo, Museu de Arte do Sâo Paulo, Museu de Arte Moderna Aloisio Magalhães in Recife, among many other Brazilian galleries and institutions. He is the recipient of numerous prizes such as Prêmio MASP Mercedes-Benz de Artes Visuais, Prêmio PIPA 2012, Prêmio Marc Ferrez de Fotografia FUNARTE/MinC, and Prêmio Video-arte Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, among others.
Maison Européene de La Photographie, Paris, France
Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães, Recife, Brazil
Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Praná, Brasil
Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Mato grosso do Sul, Brazil
Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Olinda, Brazil
Museu de Arte Brasil Estados Unidos, Brazil
Museu de Arte Moderna, Prêmio IP Capital Partners de Arte 2015, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Vermelho, São Paulo, Brazil
