Fernanda Gomes dos Santos: daily life, identity and affirmation in contemporary painting

The work of Fernanda Gomes dos Santos starts from constant observation of daily life and of the references that structure her path as a Black woman. Born in Niterói and now living in Itapetininga, São Paulo, she began her artistic practice in 2020, first in digital art. The following year she moved on to acrylic painting, the field in which she consolidated her visual research.

Fernanda has developed a language that combines figuration and abstract elements, always anchored in personal experience and in the construction of identity. By taking portraits of Black people as her focus, she turned the subject into a position. Representation, for her, is a choice that runs through memory, ancestry and the need to record histories that rarely occupy the centre of visual discourse in Brazil.

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The accessories present in her portraits, such as hats, glasses, scarves and designer pieces, work as markers of subjectivity. They introduce discussions about consumption, economic autonomy and how fashion operates as an extension of identity and desire. This choice reinforces the artist's purpose of presenting Black characters in conditions of prominence, complexity and individuality.

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Self-taught and independent, Fernanda builds her path outside the traditional circuits. That condition makes plain both her capacity to build her own way and the challenges she describes when speaking about recognition and visibility. For her, the market still needs to advance in understanding that Black artists should not be remembered only on specific dates, but considered in their continuous production.

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Taken as a whole, her work reveals an artist committed to the materiality of her references and to building visual narratives that widen Black presence in the field of Brazilian contemporary art. Fernanda Gomes dos Santos presents work that observes, records and affirms, without excess, without recourse to grand gestures, but with consistency and clarity.

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