Curator Luis Pérez-Oramas has organized a two-person exhibition at Nara Roesler's New York gallery pairing Afro-Brazilian artists Alberto Pitta, 64, and Elian Almeida, 31. The show collapses generational and medium-based boundaries, featuring Pitta's layered canvas silkscreens with symbolic folk elements alongside Almeida's colorful explorations of Brazil's history in paint. A functioning coffee cart by Pitta, elevated to artwork status, greets visitors. The exhibition runs through early January.
The exhibition is particularly timely as Pitta enjoys a wave of international attention—having been featured in the Biennale of Sydney, a group show at the Palais de Tokyo, and the Bienal de São Paulo—while Almeida represents a younger generation of artists questioning the underrepresented presence of Black bodies and stories in Brazil's dominant art system. Pérez-Oramas argues that Afro-Brazilian culture is an axis, not a margin, making these artists contemporaries across time.