MAC USP hosts discussion tables as part of the exhibition José Antônio da Silva: Painting Brazil, bringing together artists, curators, and cultural managers to discuss the painter's trajectory and reception until March 2026.
O Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (MAC USP) Between February and March 2026, will hold a series of Conversation Tables within the exhibition José Antônio da Silva: Painting Brazil, running until March 15. The meetings take place at 11 am and bring together artists, curators, collectors, and cultural managers to discuss the production and critical reception of the São Paulo painter.
The program starts on February 21, with the participation of Lais Myrrha, Paulo Pasta, Theo Monteiro and Alexandre Martins Fontes, under the mediation of Fernanda Pitta, curator of the exhibition. On March 7, the debate discusses collecting and the circulation of Silva's work, with Sébastien Gokalp, director of Grenoble Museum, the gallerist Vilma Eid and the collector Orandi Momesso, with the mediation of Emilio Kalil, director of Iberê Camargo Foundation. The movie This is Silva will be screened on the 14th, followed by a conversation with the filmmaker Carlos Augusto Calil, also responsible for curating an exhibition dedicated to the artist in 1983.
The exhibition presents 142 works, with 23 additions from the collection of MAC USP, which holds the largest collection of works by the artist in the country. The excerpt favors paintings and drawings organized by recurring themes in Silva's trajectory, such as rural life, religion, landscapes, still lifes, and self-portraits. The São Paulo version also includes a group dedicated to works on paper, especially the book Romance of My Life, consisting of 76 drawings exhibited in full.
Born in Sales de Oliveira, in the interior of São Paulo, José Antônio da Silva began his artistic production in 1940. Self-taught, she built a work associated with the rural universe and participated in several editions of São Paulo Biennial, in addition to representing Brazil in Venice Biennial in 1952 and 1966. Its institutional recognition included exhibitions at Carnegie Institute, in Pittsburgh, and exhibitions in the United States dedicated to Brazilian popular art. Silva's trajectory highlights the international circulation of artistic production from peripheral contexts and its inclusion in formal circuits of legitimation.
The exhibition is sponsored by Petrobras And of Bank of Brazil, with support from the Ministry of Culture through the Federal Culture Incentive Act. By promoting public debates surrounding the work, MAC USP expands the discussion on memory, collection, and cultural policies, putting into perspective the role of institutions in the preservation and updating of Brazilian art narratives.
