Four black Brazilians Artists for You to know and Admire their Illustrations
Note from BW of Brazil: One of the things I have loved about investigating Brazil as a whole and the black Brazilian population is discovering the various talents of the people. It’s pretty obvious that anyone who gets into Brazil (or any other country outside of their home for that matter) that music will is surely one of the art forms that first caught your attention. I’ve talked about this a lot over the years.
If you’re like many gringos who like Brazilian music, you probably discovered artists such as Antônio Carlos Jobim and the recently departed João Gilberto, or artists from the Tropicália movement first, but soon after you will discover a treasure chest of great music, both from popular artists, or if you’re like me, you’ll find those artists who aren’t as well known but make incredible music.
Then, you’re likely to discover Brazilian film or maybe television, the latter of which I’m actually not a great fan of, but then you’ll probably hear about some areas of art that don’t get as much recognition as music, film and television. For example, it was great for me to get to know some of the country’s great black painters and plastic artists. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Today, I wanted to feature the work of some great illustrators, all of who are black, three women and one man. Like so many areas of life in which the internet has made people overnight sensations or at least exposed us to the works of people that we surely wouldn’t have known without it. So check out some of the work of the artists below. I’m sure you’ll be as impressed as I am. (Note: All of the designs are nice, but I have to admit that it was the illustration of popular rapper Emicida (yellow background) that that caught my attention first.)
Four black Brazilians artists for you to know and admire their illustrations
By Anny Malagolini
The art world, especially museums, has historically highlighted works by white artists – and mostly men. You may have missed a lot of art by black Brazilian artists, unless you sought it intentionally. However, it is impossible to deny the relevance of Afro-descendant culture to the global artistic scene.
With the collaboration of Dezáina, we selected a curatorship of 4 black artists for you to know, and thus understand the importance of representativeness in the world of art. It’s important to note that there are a large number of young and lesser-known black artists who seek figurative painting today, guaranteeing the longevity and richness of this prosperous tradition at the same time that they are based in it.
Vanessa Ferreira – @pretailustra
Bruh Bandeira – @imagineedesenhe
Tamiris Benemini – @tamibenemini
Massai – @massai
Vanessa Ferreira – @pretailustra
Vanessa Ferreira
São Paulo artist Vanessa Ferreira, 34, better known as @pretailustra, is also a member of the @coletivo_pretasillustram project and produces beautiful illustrations that address the figure of black and peripheral women.
“I created @pretailustra to talk about art and illustration on the internet. Having race as a protagonist and with that I have been rewriting the narratives about our bodies through art”she explains.
According to her, one of the victories of black artists was, finally, the launch of materials with various skin colors. For her, inclusion represents “recognition of a plural and anti-racist education, where we place diversity when teaching that we have various tones.” So, it’s okay to drop your jaw every time it appears on your timeline.
Dive into the feed of this great illustrator to see some of her latest work in all its dazzling and revealing glory.
Bruh Bandeira – @imagineedesenhe
Illustrator Bruh Bandeira, 29, is a self-taught artist, and her work is aimed at celebrating black women in fashion in almost every imaginable situation. Born and raised on the outskirts of São Paulo, the artist incorporates powerful phrases into her illustrations, and the result is a mixture of joy and representation that is impossible to forget.
The coolest thing: she draws mostly women and many of them are inspired by real life people. “I have been illustrating since 2012, and the representation is in the color, hair, I approach it in my work all the time,” she says.
Tamiris Benemini – @tamibenemini
With hand-drawn drawings, São Paulo illustrator Tamiris Benemini created a recognizable style with fun and colorful characters, and always alongside her Copic markers.
In fact, it was with the brand that the artist learned to give voice to an important cause in the art world: the offer of colors that also include black skins. Until recently, representing the different skin tones of Brazilians in the drawings was very difficult. The boxes of colored pencils, chalk and pens had no shades that would value diversity. Imagine explaining this to the children?
“I remember that when I was a little girl, in art classes, I used to say ‘I’m going to paint this skin tone and I’m brown’, as if my brown tone wasn’t skin. Now, working with colors, I saw in Copic a rain of arguments against ‘we don’t have the color to represent you’. Copic has countless shades of brown, with countless nuances, which until then, we didn’t even realize the need it would have to represent skin tones. The study, mainly of skin tones and subtones, is essential to understand the different shades,” she says.
Why you should follow: Tamiris’ color palettes alone will brighten your day.
You can buy your skin tone Copic pen here.
Massai – @massai
A graduate in Design, Minas Gerais native Leandro Oliveira, known as Massai, is successful in Brazil and abroad with his original drawings. Although his work is very close to digital, traditional manual practices are not left out, and are still printed in his creations.
His art has traveled the world and prints products in Indonesia, England, Spain, Australia and the United States. On his website there are other wonderful illustrations for you to know. Scroll through the artist’s feed for a visual feast of his work.
Most likely, as a child, you used a pencil popularly known as “cor de pele” (flesh tone) to color the surface of characters on blank paper. This color, however, didn’t reflect the tone of human skin. Other than that, there were no options that corresponded to the varying shades of dark skin.
Today, times are different and brands are increasingly aware of issues of inclusion and diversity during the development and sale of new products. Aware of this, the Copic brand of pens presents a wide collection of ‘skin tone’ colors, in order to help insert the values of diversity in art, transforming the pen into a tool to draw and better represent people.
“A few years ago, the description of colors in some products still referred to different races and skin tones. In recent years we have seen a change in this standard. Today, it is already inconceivable for a brand to have products like this,” explains Fábio Sevá, founder of Dezáina, the brand’s official store in Brazil.
Source: Pajaris
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