Baró Galeria opens its Paris pop-up at 12 Galerie Véro-Dodat with Onde Nasce o Rio, the first solo exhibition in the city by Brazilian painter Bruno Novelli, curated by fellow Brazilian Chico Soll. This exhibition, running from October 24, reveals a new chapter in Novelli’s pictorial exploration: a series of luminous, small-format paintings alongside a singular, large-scale work, each one immersing viewers in a universe both fantastical and visceral.
Novelli’s artistic journey is rooted in the lush, enigmatic expanses of the Amazon rainforest. Since 2017, he has collaborated with the Huni Kuin MAHKU collective, learning to translate Indigenous narratives and visionary experiences inspired by the nixi pae (ayahuasca) ceremony. While these encounters inform his practice, Novelli constructs a distinct universe: one where panthers, snakes, lizards, dragons, fish, monkeys, and mythic hybrids roam landscapes suspended between memory and imagination.
A Synesthetic Natural World
In Onde Nasce o Rio, Novelli amplifies his visual language with brighter, more radiant hues. Each canvas is a fragment of an imagined landscape where his vibrant bestiary commands attention. Voluminous creatures inhabit ambiguous spaces that evoke both prehistoric wilderness and futuristic terrains, creating scenes of temporal tension that feel simultaneously archaic and prophetic. The artist’s meticulous layering of color and pattern creates a sense of cosmic unity, often centered around a solar motif that infuses the work with warmth and cohesion.
Novelli’s work is a dialogue between fantasy and formal tradition. Drawing from medieval bestiaries, Renaissance painting, naïve art, surrealism, and pop culture, he fuses these references into a singular visual grammar. Dense, patterned surfaces and fantastical forms converge with symbolic and natural imagery, examining the interplay between nature and human imposition on tropical landscapes.
The Artist and His Universe
Born in Fortaleza, Brazil, in 1980, Novelli studied drawing at Ateliê Livre da Prefeitura in Porto Alegre (2003) and earned a degree in Graphic Design from ESPM, São Paulo (2014). His personal environment mirrors his art: a São Paulo apartment designed like a ship, filled with colored panels, brushes, paints, and the company of two kittens, Aru and Locci. The artist’s fascination spans classical philosophy, Eastern Europe, science fiction, and psychedelic visual culture—all of which filter through his canvases.
Novelli’s practice is deeply immersive. Hours spent in painting and drawing at home transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, merging daily life with the vibrant, imaginative worlds he creates. His engagement with Indigenous collaborators, alongside a rich personal lexicon of references, situates his work at the intersection of cultural dialogue, historical reflection, and visionary imagination.
Exhibitions and Recognition
Novelli’s works have been shown internationally in prestigious institutions, including:
- Siamo Foresta, Fondation Cartier at Triennale Milano, 2023
- Les Vivants (Living Worlds), Fondation Cartier, Lille, 2022
- Tesouro das Feras, MACRS, Porto Alegre, 2021
- 1981/2021: Arte contemporânea brasileira na coleção Andrea e José Olympio Pereira, CCBB, Rio de Janeiro, 2021
His paintings are held in permanent collections such as the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris and MACRS in Porto Alegre, cementing his status as a leading contemporary Brazilian artist.
Editor’s Choice
Bruno Novelli’s Onde Nasce o Rio offers a portal to worlds unseen, where Amazonian flora and fauna fuse with myth, memory, and imagination. Each work is both a celebration of nature’s vibrancy and a meditation on its fragility, rendered in a visual language that is uniquely his own. The Paris exhibition is more than a debut—it is an invitation to journey into a luminous, fantastical cosmos, borne of the river of creativity flowing from Brazil to the world.