Marepe

Born 1970 in Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil
Lives and works in Santo Antonio de Jesus, Brazil

Marepeʼs work has evolved from a deep connection with the local traditions, customs, and materials of Bahia, the Northeastern region of Brazil. He employs the specificities of his environmental milieu, and safeguards them as memory. While using everyday  materials and activities, his work acquires a complex layering of references and meanings addressing the  linkage between the individual and society. The appropriation, deployment, and dislocation of the object are the artistʼs points of departure as he searches for new modes of signification. Marepe overcomes the notion of periphery vs. center, of romanticism vs. poverty, to establish what he calls a “sensorial communication that leads to the understanding of the work.”



Marepe, Edifício Emborcado (bacias), 2007, mixed media, 121 x 23 cm