Wallace Pato Rio de Janeiro, b. 1994

Wallace Pato is an artist whose work is dedicated to reconfiguring essential — and not always visible — fragments of Brazilian culture, particularly through the lived experiences and popular expressions of Rio de Janeiro’s suburbs and the Brazilian hinterlands. In his paintings, the expressions, rhythms, and symbols that traverse the collective memory of a plural country take form. Street scenes, childhood games, festivities, bar tables, samba circles, and Afro-Brazilian rituals are portrayed as pulsating events of celebration, resistance, and belonging. In this sense, his practice resembles that of a chronicler, creating images — marked by chromatic vibrancy and painterly gesture — that evoke historical episodes and slices of everyday life, amalgamating iconic characters, anonymous bodies, everyday scenes, and figures etched into the artist’s affective memory. In the intertwining of gesture and narrative, his atmospheric paintings reveal a repertoire that honors the spontaneity, spirituality, and inventive power of “his people.”

His solo exhibitions include: “Dignidade como Utopia” (2023, Mitre Galeria, Belo Horizonte – Brazil), “À bença meus padrinhos” (2021, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo – Brazil), and “Caminhei sobre a mãe, senti o braço” (2020). He has participated in important group exhibitions such as: “Dos Brasis” (2023, SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo – Brazil), “Histórias Brasileiras” (2022, MASP, São Paulo – Brazil), “Composição Carioca” (2022, Centro Cultural do Convento do Carmo, Rio de Janeiro – Brazil), and “Crônicas Cariocas” (2021, Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro – Brazil).