“Decolonizing the mind is looking with your own eyes”

Milton Santos

Son of Bahian migrants, he moved to Goiânia with his family at the age of seven and it was in this city, since 1996, that he started to dedicate himself entirely to the visual arts. Self-taught, he travels through several artistic languages such as ceramics, painting, drawing, engraving and installations addressing issues related to Afro-Brazilian culture.

Based on a thorough investigation of the African diaspora and religiosity, Josafá Neves elaborates his own interpretation of these symbols and elements, giving visibility and provoking reflection on their ancestral roots and the racial issue in Brazil.

One of his goals is to demystify and break with the prejudice that these religious and cultural manifestations suffer. Pointing and reflecting on these themes, the artist reveals the beauty and richness of religions of African origin, which are invaluable in the history of black resistance in Brazil.

“Poetry that“ flies off the wing ”, as Manoel de Barros says. Josafá Neves has always flown off the wings, in his apprentice solitude, has been building an indomitable, sincere and decisive art. It is political because it is freedom, plurality, difference and equality. It is an art with an immense expression of a subjectivity created in the daily toil of an Afro-descendant Brazilian. ”

Lêda Gonçalves de Freitas