Thiago Martins de Melo

Thiago Martins de Melo is a visual artist with a master's degree in Psychology. His work is developed through painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, printmaking, and animation. His visual language combines different media in compositions that are visually dense, with a strong emphasis on the materiality of paint. Taking pictorial practice as a point of departure, his canvases and objects—normally large in scale—narrate battles, syncretic rituals, and metaphysical epiphanies, drawing on the traditions of history painting and collage. Moving between Expressionist, Surrealist, and realist techniques, his works incorporate volume, objects of combat, mass-circulation products, and moving images. In doing so, the artist composes a meta-narrative framework in which episodes of anticolonial struggle are depicted alongside references to cultural industry and art history. The brutalism of his gestures condenses distinct techniques and visualities, obscuring the immediate perception of figures and mythical scenes in favor of a sensorial experience marked by a powerful, energetic charge.

With broad national and international recognition, his solo exhibitions include "Cosmogonia Colérica" (Fundação da Memória Republicana Brasileira/Convento das Mercês and Chão SLZ, São Luís, 2025); "Revoluciones en Relieve: Nuevas Obras de Thiago Martins de Melo" (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes/Arte Universal, Havana, 2024); "Resistência" (Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre, 2023); "Necrobrasiliana" (Museu Nacional da República, Brasília, 2019); and "Bárbara balaclava" (Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Recife, 2016). He has participated in group exhibitions, biennials, and triennials, including "Amazônia Açu" (Americas Society, New York, 2025); "1ª Bienal das Amazônias" (Belém, São Luís, and Medellín, 2023); "8ª Borås Art Biennial" (Borås Art Museum, Sweden, 2024); "38º Panorama da Arte Brasileira: Mil graus" (MAM São Paulo, 2024); "3ª Frestas—Trienal de Artes: O rio é uma serpente" (Sesc Sorocaba, 2021); "31ª Bienal de São Paulo" (2014); and "12ª Bienal de Lyon" (Lyon, 2013). His works are held in collections including ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Ilmin Museum of Art, MASP, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, MAC USP, MAM Rio, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Rubell Museum, and TBA21—Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. He was a finalist for the PIPA Prize in 2014 and nominated in 2011, 2012, 2016, and 2018; he received the Prêmio Funarte de Arte Contemporânea in 2011, the Prêmio Aquisição Arte Pará in 2009, and the Grande Prêmio Arte Pará in 2008.