Five Indigenous Artists

Meet five artists who are part of different Indigenous ethnic groups in Brazil

Jaider Esbell

Jaider Esbell is a visual artist, writer, and cultural producer. He was born in Normandy, in Roraima, in what is now the Raposa Indigenous Land – Serra do Sol. He is part of the Makuxi ethnic group. He has always been involved in writing and drawing. His most notable works use acrylic on canvas. They include themes such as ancestry, memory, global politics, local identity, visual shamanism, and power, among others.

Arissana Pataxó
Arissana Pataxó Braz is a visual artist and art educator. She works with a variety of media, from painting to objects, and is also a teacher. Born in Porto Seguro, Bahia, she is part of the Pataxó Indigenous community. In her work, she develops themes that seek to provide people with knowledge about the Indigenous issue in Brazil.

Denilson Baniwa
Denilson Baniwa is a visual artist born in the Río Negro region of Amazonas, in the lands of the Baniwa ethnic group. He is a multidisciplinary artist, working with different techniques, including printmaking, painting, drawing, and performance, among others. He currently lives and works in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro. Denilson was the winner of the 2019 PIPA Online Award.

Iba Huni Kuin
Ibã Huni Kuin, or Isaías Sales, is an artist who works primarily with acrylic on canvas. Born in Tarauacá, Acre, where he lives and works to this day, he is part of the Huni Kuin indigenous people. In 2013, he founded the Huni Kuin Artists Movement (MAHKU), a collective of 12 ethnic visual artists. Ibã is a Txana, a master of song in the tradition of his people.

Edgar Kanaykõ
The photographer belongs to the Indigenous community of Xakriabá state, Minas Gerais. He holds a master's degree in Anthropology from UFMG and works independently in the field of Ethnophotography: "a means of recording aspects of culture and the life of a people." He uses photography as a tool of struggle, revealing the reality of Indigenous peoples to the world.

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