Diego Mouro São Bernardo, b. 1988
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Biography
"Diego, a virtuoso of line and color, does not treat his already recognized technical and formal qualities as ends in themselves. An avowed heir to the pictorial tradition mentioned at the end of the previous paragraph—which he regards as his 'strong root'—our artist seeks to tell a story, or perhaps several stories; or maybe just a few stray threads from those countless tales of Black people and their deeds—tales that could not, cannot, and will not be told, and which, for that very reason, must be told."
— Ricardo Aleixo
Diego Mouro's work originates from the traces of Afro-diasporic ancestry to construct a poetics in which gesture, memory, and spirituality intertwine. Moving between contemporary muralism and studio painting, his practice is grounded in elements of popular daily life, traditional knowledge, and ritual practices, evoking that which resists the passage of time and remains inscribed in bodies, affections, and the celebrations of the people. Anonymous figures, flower vases, religious icons, musical groups, and elements of material culture emerge in compositions marked by a sense of suspension: as if inhabiting a dimension of their own, between appearance and dissolution, between the visible and the intangible. In his works, the pictorial gesture acts as a thread connecting the past and the present, between what was forgotten and what insists on remaining. With a sensitive palette, pictorial solutions aimed at high density, and a vocabulary that crosses regionalism, the sacred, and the popular, Diego Mouro transforms painting into a territory of reconnection and reinvention — a way of affirming the permanence of the invisible, the right to subjective complexity, and the power of symbols in motion.
His solo exhibitions include: Povoada (2023, Museu Afro Brasil Emanuel Araújo, São Paulo – Brazil) and E também as flores (2024, Mitre Galeria, Belo Horizonte – Brazil). Mouro has participated in group exhibitions such as: Mães no imaginário da arte (2023, Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo – Brazil) and Back to the City Festival (2019, Johannesburg – South Africa).
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Works
Diego Mouro São Bernardo, b. 1988
Um lugar pra descansar (A place to rest), 2026Oil on canvas130 x 200 cm
51 1/8 x 78 3/4 inThe painting portrays the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black Men in Tiradentes, Minas Gerais. Built by enslaved and formerly enslaved people, the church is an...The painting portrays the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black Men in Tiradentes, Minas Gerais. Built by enslaved and formerly enslaved people, the church is an important symbol of Black religious and community organization during the colonial period. Unlike most churches of that era, it has only a single atrium—an architectural feature that highlights the singularity of its construction by enslaved people.
The building, known for its richly ornamented gold interior, appears in the painting partially overtaken by nature, as if time and landscape were slowly enveloping it. Inside, Our Lady rests upon the altar.
In Diego Mouro’s poetics, the horse surpasses the condition of a simple animal and acquires a spiritual meaning. In Afro-Brazilian religions, people who receive ancestral spirits are called “horses,” a metaphor the artist invokes whenever these beings appear in his paintings. Here, the horse lying down suggests a state of trust and surrender, since these animals only lie down when they feel completely safe, reinforcing the idea that this is, finally, a place of rest and protection.
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