Rafael RG

Rafael RG (1986) lives and works in Salvador and Belo Horizonte. He graduated in Visual Arts from Centro Universitário Belas Artes in São Paulo (with a PROUNI grant, 2010). He began studying for a Masters’ Degree in Arts at UFMG but did not complete the course. He has taken part in exhibitions and festivals across Brazil and abroad. He has been granted the following prizes: 1st Foco ArtRio Prize; the IPHAN Prize; the Centro Cultural São Paulo Acquisition Prize; the Iberê Camargo Grant for a residency at Künstlerhaus Bremen (Germany); and the Pampulha Grant for a residency at Museu de Arte da Pampulha, amongst others. His most recent residencies include: Gasworks, in London (2018); Black Rock Senegal, in Dakar (2019); Triangle France – Astérides, in Marseille (2020); and Gleis70, in Zurich (2020), which was cancelled due to COVID-19.

His artistic practice draws on two sources for the construction of his artworks: a documental source and an affective one, using documents found in institutional or personal archives linked to narratives that involve the artist himself or an alter ego. The interaction between these territorialities results in works that are almost always fictionalised or that hold a tense notion of fictionality. Affective and sexual relations and their political implications, as well as racial identity issues, have been amongst his main areas of interest. His research often unfolds in the form of workshops, installations, text performances, publications and objects.