Greetings,

In the sculptures of Chacha Barja and the paintings of Daniel Barreto, the presence of layers and textures stands out as an essential element. Their surfaces, built over time, seem to collect impregnations of paint and matter that organically integrate with the canvases and ceramic pieces, serving as a record of the interaction between body, gesture, and material.

The works of both artists carry a sense of constant transformation, as if dissolving and recreating themselves in an incessant flow. In Barreto’s paintings, this dynamic is translated into compositions that escape fixed perspectives and rigid boundaries tied to realistic painting. His scenes oscillate between detail and the whole, blurring the separation between the intimate and the vast. The perpetual movement of layers and figures imbues the works with a pulsating rhythm, where everything seems to be in transition—at times expanding, at times contracting, like a dance between the visible and the unfinished.

In Barja’s sculptures, this flow takes on an almost playful materiality, as if molding and undoing were simultaneous gestures, reminiscent of a child’s actions. His pieces evoke transience, with an appearance that suggests something on the verge of dissolving, as if each work captures a fleeting moment of mutation.

This plasticity gives the forms an ambiguity that challenges definitive interpretations: fragmented bodies, both hard and soft, inhabit his sculptures. They evoke intentions akin to ex-votos, fragments left behind as offerings for creation and the persistence of desire, intertwined with migratory histories of love, labor, and states of faith. However, Barja’s "figures" often escape the aesthetics conventionally associated with these aspirations. In his hands, these fragments are less stable, eluding singular definitions, making fervor something palpable, a sensitive material in full metamorphosis.

Daniel Barreto, born in Volta Redonda in Rio de Janeiro, began his artistic journey in graffiti, finding in the streets a raw material he would frequently revisit in his sketchbooks. These sketchbooks function as laboratories for experimentation, where urban scenes and everyday marks are transfigured into pictorial layers.

Chacha Barja, on the other hand, brings a migratory trajectory to his work: originally from Belém in Pará, he settled in Rio de Janeiro before moving to Recife. Along this journey, his craft became a space of articulation—a home—between memories, territories, and the structures that later give shape to his sculptures.

Both Barreto and Barja share an interest that permeates what is common—perhaps heads, ears, mouths—parts and gestures that evoke the abrupt everyday life, filled with stories often emerging from narratives of the streets, festivals, and prayers.

The meeting of Barja and Barreto goes beyond the instability of the quotidian or the contradiction of being in motion. Their works reflect a radical curiosity about life, a rare abundance in times of environmental collapse, crises, and conflicts. In their art, there is a defiant affirmation of what still pulses, a disarming of strategies of violence, and a cultivation of the desire to create. In this incessant flow of transformation, their works insist on mechanisms grounded in the vitality of being impressed by matter and the state of things around them.

Their practices are not confined to a local context but connect individual and collective experiences, proposing new ways of looking at the relationships between body, space, and community. This engagement translates into a commitment to envision art as a means of transformation and dialogue between the personal and the collective. These are arrangements that move from one point to another, reinventing what has been seen.

Their thoughts mingle with everything around them, affirming their part in the whole. Alive.

—Ariana Nuala
São Paulo,
December 2024