Antonio Obá's works reflect on the relationship between Brazilian identity and the Black body by recovering cultural and religious icons to represent histories erased from national identity and the country's political memory.
Read MoreObá's watercolour works show blurred primitive bodies, painted brown in animal-like fur and postures, as in Untitled (2017), which depicts the shadow of a hybrid man-wolf on his knees.
All untitled, Obá's watercolour paintings seem to refer to the absence of Black histories in existing cultural documentation, replicating dominant stereotypes that represent the Black body as uncivilised or savage.
Obá's paintings insert Black figures into traditional Brazilian scenes rich with historical motifs, as if to remind viewers that they have always been there.
In the painting Sankofa – figua com alpargata (2020), a nude Black man is concealed between velvet curtains on a chequered floor; burgundy and gold, the colours of the scene as well as the architecture evoke an ecclesiastic building.
Likewise, simplified prints like Obá's 'Outros Ofícios' series (2020) show a partially rendered figure aside golden crowns and medallions, framed by golden leaves, or holding a paint roller dipped in gold, alluding to the centuries of Black labour that underlie Brazilian culture.
Other portraits employ rich detail while performing the same function, either echoing the absence of the Black figure in local traditions or inserting Black figures into existing cultural narratives, thus generating new associations.
Sentinela N°2 (2021) is a stately and self-assured portrait of a young man and a maternal figure against a lush green jungle. Herói do Fogo Interior – Gameleira (2020) on the other hand is solemn and meditative, depicting a young Black man in white standing before an open fire, with a white tree with dripping branches behind him.
Obá's performances often involve his own body as an extension of the perception of Black bodies in Brazilian history and culture.
In the 2015 performance Acts of Transfiguration: Disappearance of a Recipe for a Saint, Obá ground a statue of the Virgin Mary into dust and covered his nude body with the white powder as a critique of the racism and prejudice facing Black people and African religions in Brazil.
The piece was met with reproach and violence despite Obá's clarification that it was meant to address his personal history with Christian rites and Catholicism. With legal action threatened by a member of government, Obá left for Europe.
Similarly, Obá's installations recreate ritualistic and religious spaces as in Malungo (2015–2019), an altar-like installation shown at Art Basel, comprised of an open panel divided in three sections, displaying two paintings of Black figures with religious motifs and an altar.
Obá placed a mirror in front of the altar, echoing his earlier mirror installations from the 'Ambiente com Espelhos' series (2017) and prompting viewers to consider the physical representation of bodies and religion as a potential lens of obstruction.
