Matheus Marques Abu - O Brasil que devemos lembrar - Acrylic on canvas - 2021 - 190x190 cm
Matheus Marques Abu - O amor sempre sabe o caminho de volta pra casa (Adinkra) - Acrylic on canvas - 2021 - 230x190 cm
Matheus Marques ABU
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1997
Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
ABU develops independent research on ancestry, spirituality and the African diaspora in Brazil, putting into perspective the colonial history and its reverberations in the daily lives of racialized people. The painting appears during the pandemic and on a trip to Salvador he discovered another set of symbols, the “adinkra”. Brought to Brazil by enslaved people, these ideograms were carved mainly on gates and windows in imperial Brazil by enslaved black blacksmiths, composing a sophisticated form of communication and resistance to subalternity. To rescue this language through their works is at once to challenge dominant visibility regimes and the canon of Eurocentric history (including art history), bringing to light an alternative history invisible to the eyes of the colonial mind.
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