Brazilian (Boston, USA), 1987 \ Lives and works between São Paulo, Brazil and Amsterdam, Netherlands
The multiple propositions of Daniel de Paula intend to reflect on the production of space as a reproduction of power dynamics, revealing investigations into the political, social, economic, historical, and bureaucratic structures that shape relationships and places. Through a stance that is not confined to the realms of art, his practice is intersected by notions of human and physical geography, showing his interest in understanding the dominant abstract ideological systems, such as capital, property, labor, and the production of value, hidden within the physicality that surrounds us.
Through strategies such as extensive negotiations with public and private bodies for the appropriation, displacement, and re-contextualization of objects, as well as interactions with agents that constitute the exhibition space, his procedures end up emphasizing materiality as a language to be critically interpreted. This materiality becomes a key to interpreting the world and the violent socio-political vectors that give meaning to our lives.
In 2024, he presented commissioned works for the Lulea Biennalen: On the threshold of 1:1, in Sweden, including a permanent installation in the city of Kiruna. Recent solo exhibitions include infreaestrurura, instituição, indivíduo, at Galeria Jaqueline Martins, São Paulo, Brazil (2023), inalienable, imprescriptible and unseizable, LABOR Gallery, Ciudade do México, Mexico (2023); Repose, The Arts Club of Chicago, USA (2022), veridical shadows, or the unfoldings of a deceptive physicality, Jaqueline Martins Gallery, Brussels, Belgium (2021); and materiality becomes nothing but a mere representation of a structure of dominance, Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2020); the control of things over subjects is the control of subjects over themselves, Francesca Minini Gallery, Milan, Italy (2019); insurmountable structure, Kunsthal Gent, Belgium (2019); the conductive form of dominant flows, Jaqueline Martins Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil (2017); testimony, Leme Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil (2015) and objects of mobility, actions of permanence, White Cube Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil (2014).
His works have also been included in recent institutional exhibitions such as On the threshold of 1:1, Luleå Biennial, Sweden (2024) manifesto of fragility, 16th Lyon Biennial, France (2022) Fear of Property, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, USA (2022), Faz escuro mas eu canto, 34th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2021), Brasile. Il coltello nella carne, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy (2018), Matriz do Tempo Real, MAC, São Paulo, Brazil (2018); Avenida Paulista, MASP, São Paulo, Brazil (2017); Metrópole: Experiência Paulistana, Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo, Brazil (2017); ARTE PARA TODOS! Liberation and Consumption, Figueiredo Ferraz Institute, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil (2016), Us between the Extremes, Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil (2015); Next time I’d do everything differently, PIVÔ, São Paulo, Brazil (2012).
