GUSTAVO NAZARENO

Gustavo Nazareno’s main focus in his work is the orisha Exú, the orisha of human qualities. Another theme that gains strength in his paintings is the African Diaspora in Brazilian religiosity and the pantheon of Yoruba orishas in Candomblé and Umbanda. Through paintings and drawings in oil and charcoal, the artist develops a body of work in which the portrait takes on another dimension in the pictorial context. The contrast between the dark colors of the skins and his characters, many of them created from fables written by the artist himself, and the opaque background in light tones, the outlined contour of the figures manifests the precise technique refined by the artist throughout his young career, but which absorbs an entire study of human anatomy in research that he has been developing on his own from a very early age.

Hybrid forces, ancestral spirits and mythological negotiators between human and divine world – prophets of wisdom and incarnation of historical legacies –, in Nazareno’s poetic universe the Orishas are glorious figures of a poignant pantheon where African traditions, Brazilian rituals, Spiritism and Catholicism coalesce.

His works are represented by Opera Gallery.