Residency

The Artistic Residency program showcases the yearly residency programs offered by the organization to support Brazilian visual artists. This section aims to provide an overview of each residency, including the artist and their work during the residency, as well as a brief description of the residency itself.

In October and November 2024, as part of this mission, Panmela Castro established her studio at El Espacio 23 in Miami, in collaboration with The55Project. This location and timeframe were chosen not only as a workspace but also as a venue for interactions and cultural exchanges.

“Deriva Afetiva’s” project transforms the studio into a living space where Castro welcomes friends, newcomers, and strangers to be portrayed. Chance guides these encounters of different worlds and stories, with each visitor participating in the creative process and contributing to the construction of a network of affections.

Castro uses these interactions as raw material, capturing portraits of her subjects along with the flowers she receives, which serve as symbols of affection and acceptance. The series “Derivas Afetivas” explores the idea of movement guided by chance, where randomness becomes a focal point in the search for belonging. This process of "letting oneself wander" allows Castro to experience serendipitous moments and encounters that feel predestined, celebrating the ephemerality and surprise found in human connections. Each portrait and flower represents a shared moment, a unique story woven into the fabric of Castro's work.

Through The55Project, Castro expands her artistic practice and reinforces intercultural dialogue. The exhibition serves as a microcosm of cultural exchange, highlighting the crucial role of the public in the creative process and establishing art as an essential link between individuals from diverse backgrounds. “Affective Drift” stands as a testament to Castro's ongoing journey in the art world, characterized by a relentless search for new connections and a sense of belonging.

2024

Panmela Castro

André Azevedo's research with fabrics is part of his personal and familiar experience with this materiality. From this intimate connection, Azevedo began to understand textiles simultaneously as language, concept, and materiality, which allowed him numerous forms of interaction with the world. The starting point for realizing his works comes from the etymology of the word text and a recurring quotation among several authors: “Text means fabric and a line a thread of a linen fabric.”

He explores the plot structure within the universe of storytelling, using notions of “following the thread,” “backdrop,” and “knotless stitch,” among other figures of speech. The fabric is an opportunity to deal with the idea that things are entangled: they follow phenomena of repetition, transmit processes, and consequently revive images. Azevedo begins with the statement that fabric is a medium because it is in between – between men and the world, and between the world and all the things it coats –and, then, makes use of different malleable media, such as books, screens, video, and sound installations.

2024

André Azevedo

Rafael RG is a visual artist who lives and works between Guarulhos and São Luís do Maranhão, Brazil. He has a degree in Visual Arts from Belas Artes de São Paulo and has received numerous awards and scholarships, including the 1st Foco ArtRio Award and the Iberê Camargo Scholarship for residency at Künstlerhaus Bremen in Germany. RG has had residencies at various institutions, including Gasworks in London, Triangle France in Marseille, and FAAP Artist Residency in São Paulo.

In his artistic practice, RG brings together documentary and affective sources to construct his works. He often uses documents from institutional or personal archives and integrates these with narratives that may involve himself or an alter ego. The result is works that often approach fiction or a notion of fictionality. RG's current areas of interest include affective relationships, sexual and gender politics, racial identity, and related issues. He explores these themes through workshops, installations, performative texts, publications, and objects.

RG's work is supported by the @garciafamilyfoundation. He continues to produce thought-provoking works that challenge viewers to consider the complex intersections of politics, identity, and affect in our lives.

2022

Rafael RG

Nádia Taquary raises questions related to the knowledge and practices of traditions in Creole jewelry. In her works, she uses wood, gold, silver, beads, straw, and other objects representative of the history of the Black population in Brazil. These objects, which have lost their meaning over time, originally represented freedom for many enslaved Black women, and today are being revisited and empowered by the artist to emphasize the continuation of contemporary racial struggles.

2021

Nadia Taquary

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE FOUNTAINHEAD RESIDENCY IN MIAMI

We are thrilled to have Mano Penalva for the residency program 2020 in partnership between The55Project and The Fountainhead residency in Miami. We want to thank Kathryn Mikesell, co-Founder of The Fountainhead, Adriana Malfitano, and Ricardo Mor for helping us with the artist selection and nomination. Congratulations to Mano Penalva.Mano Penalva is a Brazilian artist who documents the material culture, behavioral changes, and globalization surrounding our contemporary lives. His art reflects on the character of objects and how they transition through the world.

During the program, Mano Penalva created “American Sky,” 2020, a 5 min video performance.

"The flag of Penalva waves high - an imagined flag suggests an inclusive America with all nations under the same sky. The stars and the navy blue color are borrowed from the flag of the United States, its version signals to infinite stars that shine even in dark times. The work reminds the viewer of the many types of Americans that exist above and below Ecuador and serves as an invitation to understand America in its entirety better. "

Text by Ana Clara Silva.

2020

Mano Penalva

“ESCRIBE UNA CARTA DE AMOR”

Curated by Adriana Herrera | Miami, October 15, 2018

The project used poetic sentences to activate subjective spaces in Downtown Miami creating the possibility of public interaction, promoting new possibilities for political and social discussion while activating conversation beyond the artist's native Brazilian territory, expanding while allowing borders to dissipate.

"I am very interested in this ambiguity of phrases, which permeate politics and affection. In addition to this, there is the idea of presenting a work far from the space of the white cube, that allows to reach people completely alien to the art, but never alien to the politics or to the love.” - Ivan Grilo.