Antonio
Oba

Antonio Obá was born in 1983 in Brasilia, where he lives and works today. In his multiform practice—painting, drawing, sculpture, performance and installation—he refers to the contradictions present in his culture. For example, his installations feature ex-votos—objects offered to gods in gratitude for mercy or intercession—to which the artist adds organic animal elements or debris with a strong symbolic charge (teeth, horseshoes, nails, etc.). These composite images of religious icons with seemingly magical powers, akin to amulets, attest to painful stories and injured bodies, drawn from both individual narratives and a universal past.