Artist Opens Solo Exhibition in São Luís

One of the rising names of the new wave of Brazilian visual artists, about to turn 44, Thiago Martins de Melo, from Maranhão, opened his first solo exhibition this week in São Luís.

The collection—dubbed Cosmogonia Choérica—brings together 21 works produced between 2013 and 2025. It occupies rooms in the Convento das Mercês and the Espaço Cultural Chão SLZ, located in the Historic Center of São Luís.

Curated by Germano Dushá—one of the curators of the latest Panorama of Brazilian Art at the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo—the exhibition features a multiplicity of artistic expressions, including large-scale paintings, sculptures, prints, experimental videos, and installations by Thiago, moving between expressionist and realist techniques.

Germano highlights some aspects considered in the process of selecting the pieces for the exhibition that embody the artist's identity. He says that "the idea was not exactly to create a chronological exhibition, but rather to capture a common thread, to synthesize the main spiritual, political, and aesthetic axes of Thiago's trajectory. I think the core of the work is precisely this profusion of languages, forms, and themes. And this title – Cosmogonia Choérica – speaks volumes about creations, the creation of the world, and genesis, but always with great force, energy, and charge," he argues.

The works combine history, politics, mysticism, and spirituality. The title Cosmogonia Choérica points to this combination of creation and fury, between genesis and confrontation, materializing battles, syncretic rites, and epiphanies.

Curator Germano Dushá explains that the exhibition was conceived with a broader and more limited audience in mind.