Arthur Palhano is a visual artist who graduated from Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage in 2019. His practice is focused on painting, constructed through the layering, scraping, and excavation of paint, in a process that reveals the historicity of surfaces and activates the memory inscribed in the objects and images represented.
Palhano works from images, memories, and everyday objects—such as knives, shoes, and small domestic icons—which, when transposed into painting, acquire symbolic density. In his works, these elements also engage with traditional categories of painting, such as the discussions of figure and ground and the still-life genre, in order to challenge and reframe them.
The artist is part of Galatea’s selection for the 15th edition of the ArtRio fair, which takes place from September 10 to 14 at Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro. In the first semester of 2026, Palhano will present his first solo show in São Paulo, at Galatea. Among the exhibitions he has participated in are: Pequenas pinturas III Small Paintings III; Partial Objects (duo with Kian Mckeown, MAMA Projects, New York, USA, 2024); and Do desenho On Drawing; and Dogma (Solo, Portas Vilaseca, Rio de Janeiro, 2023).
Palhano is also represented by Portas Vilaseca (@portasvilaseca) in Rio de Janeiro, and collaborates with Arr Gallery (@arr_gallery) in Hangzhou and Mama Projects (@mamaprojects.co) in New York.
Courtesy Galatea, São Paulo.

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