By Yula Rocha
London, 2 May 2023 – Aislan Pankararu, an acclaimed Indigenous visual artist from Brazil, is in London taking part in a month-long artistic residency – a cultural exchange programme facilitated by People’s Palace Projects. He is producing a collection of new paintings at Markus Jake studio at Greenwich Peninsula for his first international solo exhibition – FEEL IT – at the Brazilian Embassy in London, that will be open to the public on 19 May.
Aislan’s art is rooted in his memories, feelings of belonging, longing for his origins, and the desire to pay homage to, and connect with, his ancestry. In painting and drawing on paper and canvas, he brings traditional visual elements from his people’s body painting artistry and builds upon them to develop his own compositions and figures – demonstrating that the Pankararu culture still stands strong today despite the colonisation process.
His exhibition will also mark the beginning of a three-day celebration of Indigenous cinema – ECHOES Indigenous Film Festival, taking place at the ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts from 19 to 21 May, curated by three brilliant Indigenous filmmakers- Takuma Kuikuro, Graci Guarani and Ziel Karapoto who soon will be in London too. All screenings will be followed by Q&As. Tickets here
FEEL IT runs from 19 May to 1 June, Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm, at the Embassy of Brazil in London (14-16 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5BL). Admission is free of charge. For more information about Aislan Pankararu, visit the artist’s website.
ECHOES Indigenous Film Festival runs from 19 to 21 May at the ICA – the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (The Mall, St. James’s, London SW1Y 5AH). See the complete programme.
Meet the artist:
*Photo by: Jeff Pedace
Aislan Pankararu (b. 1990) is a visual artist, originally from the Pankararu Indigenous territory located in Petrolândia, in the Northeast of Brazil, and currently based in Sao Paulo. In between hiatuses from his medical career as a doctor working for the Brazilian National Health Service (SUS), he has built an increasingly strong rapport within the contemporary Brazilian visual arts scene.
His first solo exhibition, Abá Pukuá | Sky Man (2020), was in partnership with the University Hospital in Brasília’s humanisation in healthcare committee, and marked the beginning of Aislan’s journey in sharing his own cultural expressions with the public. His second exhibition soon followed at the Memorial of Indigenous People: Yeposanóng | Get Well (2021).
So far, in 2023, he has already been invited to exhibit at the National Museum of the Republic for the inauguration of President Lula. His artwork was also featured at Itaú Cultural and Marco Zero Gallery, among other prestigious visual art spaces, and is part of the Inhotim Institute and Jaider Esbell Contemporary Indigenous Art Gallery collections.