Arjan Martins
de Paulo Miyada
The book Arjan Martins presents an extensive overview of the trajectory of this carioca painter. In his work, the artist dialogues with the modern tradition of Western painting, incorporating an Afro-Brazilian visual repertoire and narrative. The faces of his black figures are often blurred with paint and of distressed and elegant brushstrokes. At the same time that they refer to a erased identity, they translate this denial of image/identity with gestures that multiply the expressive directions contained in the form. The images of immigrants and African descendants are a fundamental part of the artist's repertoire, showing them in everyday actions, and which bring eminent issues to be discussed: colonial heritage, ethnic identity, blackness, segregation, invisibility. His works also go through cartography, which arrive as significant elements of the historical period of navigations. The work of Arjan Martins has been presented in several of the most important institutions in Brazil, besides having been exhibited in important biennials around the world, such as the Dakar Biennial and the Bienal do Mercosul. The publication features more than 100 works by the artist, as well as an essay by the book's organizer, Paulo Miyada, now curator of the Instituto Tomie Ohtake, in São Paulo, another of the critic and art historian Michael Asbury, and also an interview with Arjan Martins by art historian Raquel Barreto.
