Zéh Palito is making his Perrotin debut with a new solo exhibition entitled Cars, Pools & Melanin. Based between São Paulo and Maryland, the Brazilian artist creates fantastical portrait and landscape paintings that provide a glimpse into the Afro-diasporic experience, while also touching on universal themes of identity and an advocation for social equity and environmental protection.
As a bridge between the U.S. and Brazil, Palito’s latest show examines the socio-political discrimination that Black and Brown citizens face in both countries. Emblematic of the title, the exhibition thematically centers around cars and swimming pools, ubiquitous aspects of daily life that, according to curator Rodrigo Moura, “allude to an important aspect of the struggle for racial equality: the right to leisure.”
Each of Palito’s new paintings reference art history, such as David Hockney‘s A Bigger Splash (1967) and Vincent van Gogh‘s The Starry Night (1889), which he paints in the form of miniature replicas of his source inspirations, while placing Black subjects as the focal point of conversation — sparking dialogues regarding past and present — from Brown v. Board of Education (1952-1954) to Brazil’s current culture wars.
“Palito envisions the swimming pool as a space of affirmation,” Moura added. “This reference serves as a bitter reminder that, despite legal support, the end of segregation remains an incomplete process in countries marked by racism imposed by the colonial enterprise, such as the United States and Brazil.” In places like Jardins, however, which Moura notes as one of the most segregated neighborhoods in Brazil, the positive effect of integration is being felt, thanks to generations of artists such as Palito, who celebrate African culture and the universal qualities human beings share with one another and nature.
Cars, Pools & Melanin will be on view in New York until October 19, 2024.
Perrotin
130 Orchard St
New York, NY 10002
