{"id":114084,"date":"2025-11-04T01:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T01:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/114084\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T01:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T01:52:11","slug":"painter-agrade-camiz-captures-the-beauty-and-brutality-of-life-in-rio-de-janeiro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/114084\/","title":{"rendered":"Painter Agrade Cam\u00edz Captures the Beauty and Brutality of Life in Rio de Janeiro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up, Agrade Cam\u00edz<\/a> never thought she would become an artist. From her perspective as a child in Jacar\u00e9\u2014one of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s largest low-income, predominantly Black communities\u2014art was a distant prospect. But then, one day, her cousin taught her how to tag graffiti, and she began to mark the city as her own. She met graffiti artists at local MC battles and joined them. She worked mostly with men, since there were hardly any grafiteiras. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tough, really machista (chauvinist), and really competitive, but when you\u2019re passionate about something, you just do it,\u201d she said, during a visit to her studio in Rio\u2019s bustling city center, buzzing with street vendors. \u201cIt\u2019s very different today, when women rule some of the scene.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even though she went to art school, Cam\u00edz recently told Artsy that the streets really made her the artist she is today. \u201cIt\u2019s a very democratic space, and it\u2019s given my art a collective basis,\u201d she said. This sensitivity to the urban environment\u2014its architecture, intimacy, and richness\u2014 informs all her work. Her paintings combine elements of suburban architecture, such as grates (a recurring motif), patios, and domestic indoor decorations, alongside portraits of Black bodies, captured in surroundings that feel intimate yet often eerily abstract. In this way, Cam\u00edz reimagines the world around her, both celebrating its distinct features and offering social critique.<\/p>\n

Her recent rise in the local art scene has been meteoric. She\u2019s had three solo exhibitions at A Gentil Carioca<\/a> gallery, which represents her, since 2021 (one in S\u00e3o Paulo and two in Rio de Janeiro). This year, she has also shown abroad: at Paris\u2019s Grand Palais<\/a> in \u201cHorizontes: Brazilian contemporary art unveiled,\u201d a painting exhibition organized by Brazilian artist (and A Gentil Carioca co-founder) Ernesto Neto<\/a>. Now, she is moving from her cozy studio in the city\u2019s historic center to a brighter, more spacious atelier.<\/p>\n

Though her ascent might seem quick, the artist has been developing her craft for over 20 years, often struggling to make ends meet. In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, she was living and working in a squat, baroquely named Palacette dos Amores (Mansion of Loves). \u201cThey were my best and my worst of times,\u201d Cam\u00edz said. \u201cBest in terms of producing a lot of great work, but also the worst, because I was broke, and generally in a tough place.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Cam\u00edz\u2019s brutal yet tender work, there\u2019s often a sense of being in (or coming from) a difficult environment. Her settings are fraught with physical and emotional peril. In the painting Homens amam baby beef (Men love baby beef) (2021), for instance, red paint trickles down between a black-and-white wedge, resembling blood and underwear respectively, in an otherwise bright geometric composition. The work\u2019s title and its violent association between a specific cut of meat in Brazil (\u201cbaby beef\u201d), known for its softness, and the sexual abuse of minors is a startling metaphor. <\/p>\n

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Agrade Cam\u00edz, Brasileirinhas II, 2024. Photo by Pedro Agilson. Courtesy of the artist and A Gentil Carioca. <\/p>\n

Other works create more subtle associations between harm and protection, fear and tenderness. Brasileirinhas II (2024), for example, takes a provocative, voyeuristic angle looking down on a woman\u2019s body as she sunbathes in her backyard. This sense of danger is countered by the peaceful domestic setting. <\/p>\n

Cam\u00edz\u2019s first big break came in 2020, when graffiti collective Rua Walls invited her to paint an outdoor mural in Rio\u2019s port. She graffitied the phrase \u201cSonho do amor pr\u00f3prio\u201d (Dream of self-love), remixing a popular saying, \u201csonho da casa propria\u201d (dream of one\u2019s own house). \u201cEvery Brazilian dreams of owning a home, because we have so many housing problems. But I wanted to speak of self-love, which has to do with how, in our city, we celebrate many things from other cultures but few that come from here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Agrade Cam\u00edz, O Sonho do Amor Pro\u0301prio, 2023. Courtesy of Agrade Cam\u00edz. <\/p>\n

The work resonated. In 2021, she was introduced to her now gallerists at A Gentil Carioca through artist Aleta Valente<\/a>, who also lived at Palacete dos Amores. By then, Cam\u00edz had begun to paint on canvas, depicting not only Jacar\u00e9\u2019s social housing, but also women\u2019s bodies, delving into sensitive, even taboo themes, such as prostitution and sexual abuse. \u201cPainting plays with subjectivity, creating a sense of hide-and-seek, so it\u2019s a good place to address painful themes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Many paintings in her first solo show at A Gentil Carioca, \u201cAbusada\u201d (Abused), in 2021, explored the themes of abuse and protection. In Self-portrait (2021), she depicted her own body in electric pink, with a large pattern-like mark in her flesh. Her canvases are often divided into sections, or crisscrossed by lines, as if seen through railings that keep the viewer at a distance.<\/p>\n

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Agrade Cam\u00edz, Self-portrait, 2021. Courtesy of the artist and A Gentil Carioca.<\/p>\n

For her 2023 installation at A Gentil Carioca, \u00daltima forma (Ultimate form), she repurposed wooden signs common in suburban Brazilian homes into remnants of trauma. Though they\u2019re usually inscribed with religious mottos, Cam\u00edz instead burned shaming phrases onto them, such as \u201cdirty child,\u201d and \u201csilence.\u201d These were taken from her own memory of sexual abuse, or shared with her by other abused women. As part of the installation, she also showed a video, which captured her lighting 1,000 candles\u2014a symbol of protection for the future.<\/p>\n

Her photographic series \u201cAp\u00f3s a curva vire \u00e0 esquerda\u201d (After the curve, turn left) (2023) was inspired by the custom of women in Rio to stick black tape \u201cbikinis\u201d onto their bodies, creating tan lines. \u201c[Visible tan lines] has always been part of the aesthetics of the favela, but when women started setting up businesses [for artificial tanning], it became part of a micro-economy and a symbol of empowerment of Black women entrepreneurs,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

With an artist friend, Cam\u00edz invited women to a salon in Baixa do Sapateiro to pose for photographs while tanning. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to do photographs merely as a record, but rather as something abstract, close to my paintings, so that you wouldn\u2019t necessarily recognize which part of the body you\u2019re seeing,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Such nuanced interplay between abstract and everyday motifs underpins all her work. In the triptych Cheat Retreat (2022), a black-green swarm of spots infiltrates the sprawling yellow-white landscape. Cam\u00edz said the work depicts how her community has been treated throughout Rio\u2019s gentrification: \u201cThere were complaints that we crowded the beaches, turning them \u2018ugly.\u2019\u201d The work offers a social and racial critique, raising questions of access, by geometrically delineating the zones of exclusion. <\/p>\n

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Agrade Cam\u00edz, Cheat Retreat, 2022 . Photo by Pedro Agilson. Courtesy of the artist and A Gentil Carioca. <\/p>\n

This exclusion is also evoked in the painting Leblon de 474 (2021). The title refers to an upscale neighborhood in Rio, and the number \u201c474\u201d stands for the bus bringing bathers from the poor communities in Cam\u00edz\u2019s native Jacar\u00e9. \u201cIt\u2019s a moment of leisure for us, but it represents chaos to the people living in the rich areas of Rio,\u201d Cam\u00edz said, noting the heavy policing that this bus is subject to. To underscore the jarring dissonance between leisure and danger, she paints vibrant yet disjointed geometric shapes: Asphalt is wedged into land, and urban architecture is shown impossibly jumbled.<\/p>\n

Not all of her work takes on such dark themes. She also turns to the local architectural vernacular to highlight its sensual beauty\u2014to commemorate her community, Black women, and herself. In the abstract self-portrait Bem nascida (Well born) (2023), the grate\u2019s floral shape is remarkably fluid, echoed in many other curvy and arabesque forms. As a decorative element, not a utilitarian one, it denotes pleasure rather than a need for safety. \u201cIt even looks like the reproductive system of a woman,\u201d Cam\u00edz said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"Agrade<\/p>\n

Agrade Cam\u00edz, Leblon de 474, 2021. Photo by Pedro Agilson. Courtesy of the artist and A Gentil Carioca. <\/p>\n

Similarly sensual is Grains de beaut\u00e9 perp\u00e9tuels (2025)\u2014one of Cam\u00edz\u2019s latest paintings, which was shown recently at the Grand Palais show. Here, she exalts the humble bamboo beads used for curtains in many homes in her community. The beads trickle down her painting, leading the viewer\u2019s eye through pulsating realms of scarlet-reds and cobalt-blues. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s in this phase, as her career takes off, that Cam\u00edz is feeling most comfortable in her practice. \u201cWe pass through so many moments in painting when it feels like we\u2019re drowning\u2014our whole life,\u201d Cam\u00edz said. \u201cBut now I\u2019m finding myself. I\u2019m in a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Artsy Vanguard 2026<\/p>\n

The Artsy Vanguard is now in its eighth year of highlighting the most promising artists working today. As 2026 approaches, we\u2019re celebrating 10 talents poised to become future leaders of contemporary art and culture. <\/p>\n

Explore more of The Artsy Vanguard 2026<\/a> and browse works by the artists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Video by Pushpin Films \/ Kashfi Halford for Artsy.<\/p>\n

Thumbnail: Portrait of Agrade Cam\u00edz by Kashfi Halford for Artsy, 2025; Agrade Cam\u00edz, from left to right: \u201cFarol,\u201d 2025, and \u201cGarotas se vendem\/A garota se vendo,\u201d 2024. Courtesy of the artist and A Gentil Carioca.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up, Agrade Cam\u00edz never thought she would become an artist. From her perspective as a child in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[73678,73677,19359,437,434,435,436,438,73679,146,85,46,30595],"class_list":{"0":"post-114084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-a-gentil-carioca","9":"tag-agrade-camiz","10":"tag-artist-profiles","11":"tag-arts","12":"tag-arts-and-design","13":"tag-artsanddesign","14":"tag-artsdesign","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-ela-bittencourt","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-il","19":"tag-israel","20":"tag-vanguard"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}