ENIVO has been presenting in 2022 a series of three distinct exhibitions under the curatorship of the wise and visionary SIMON WATSON. In total more than 30 paintings narrating the deep connection between ENIVO and the people. Organized in three stories with a his solo show “AFETO” at the Museu de Arte Sacra in São Paulo, then his contribution to the collective exhibition “NALUTA NALATA” at the prestigious Museu Nacional da República in Brasília, and finally a solo show “BRAZA” at the Kates-Ferri Projects in New York City.
With 2022 coming to an end in a couple of months, we wished to share a rich retrospective of Enivo & Simon Watson’ fruitful collaboration.
AFETO – Museu de Arte Sacra de São Paulo
18.06.22 – 20.08.22
Curatorship of Simon Watson
Based on Enivo’s long-term relationship with the streets and its ecosystem – AFETO was inspired by Father Júlio Lancelotti, whom daily denunciation on social medias of the humanitarian crisis affected deeply Enivo. The series of 12 paintings aim to honor the anonymous humble people occupying and living on the sidewalks and shelters of São Paulo. To enrich his visuals, Enivo dug into the photographs of Daniel Kfouri, Lukas Juhler and Victor Angelo.
The exhibition invites the audience to discover the shocking and revolting reality of the people too many tend to ignore along their daily routine – whether a man obliged to eat garbage to survive, whether a family sleeping on the ground – while highliting their will to live – whether through jugglers on Rua Funchal, whether through Zé Cabrita (a deaf and mute political candidate) riding a decorated motorcycle in Grajaú’s streets.
Originally a successful and well-respected street artist, Enivo reminds that art is a powerful way to educate about the hard reality of megalopolis and a create way to empower those who are suffering and fighting to survive.
NALUTA/NALATA – Museu Nacional da República (MUN), Brasília
19.08.22 – 02.10.22
Curatorship of Simon Watson & Luan Cardoso
When walking into the MUN, impossible to miss the giant inflatable smiley – one of ENIVO’s trademarks – standing in the middle of the space as a connecting point beween the 16 artists curated by Simon Watson and Luan Cardoso.
Naluta/Nalata explores the spirit and dynamics of Brazil’s streets under the impulse of its new generation of artists – drawing attention to Brazil’s rich and vibrant urban culture. Graffiti & street artists largely contribute to the artistic landscape – using the walls as giant canvas to communicate directly with the population, no matter the social and cultural background.
Among Tinho, Diego Aliados, Mag Magrela, Mundano and even pixadores (cf. full list in images gallery), Enivo acquired the legitimacy to be a spokesman of the Brazilian street and urban culture to which he pays hommage with stories on canvas, and which he honors when regularly volunteering to bring colors through his spray in the favelas.
BRAZA – Kates-Ferri Projects, New York City
07.10.22 – 04.11.22
Curatorship of Simon Watson
Website / Instagram / Untitled Magazine
No better way than ending our tour into a party to which ENIVO invites us with his exhibition BRAZA – not in any location, but actually within the favelas to which he is and will always be deeply connected.
To describe the human dimension and complexity of the exhibition, we chose to share the words written by Untitled Magazine (link above) :
“To ENIVO these locales are home, and the vibrant scenes of women twerking or a man bleaching his friend’s hair in a hot tub are snapshots of local young adults casually passing the time.
While men and women are painted two-dimensionally, the objects they hold dear are rendered with bold strokes and dense detail; the tip of a blunt caked with texture here, a box of Delicia margarine jutting out there. Shimmering jewelry creates small mounds on the contours of a man’s body as he smokes with his iPhone in his pants with tattoos running up his arm and a digital watch on his wrist. In one painting, a masked drug dealer stands at the forefront while police officers are being paid off in the background.
The world behind the paintings is fully immersive. A rainbow line connects each canvas across the stark-white walls the way that power lines deliver selfies from phone to phone, running the energy of one image through the next in a grid-like connectedness. This transmitting thread runs through various heart-eyed emojis on the wall, giving the viewer the impression that the images are being shared and “liked” on social media as they look at the display”.
In 2022, ENIVO grew as both a man and an artist of the people – using his talent and creative mind to honor his origins, to bring his culture under the spotlight and to remind us that we are human after all and should embrace our own life and those of our neighbors.
