Galeria Inox

Emmanuel da Cunha Nassar (b. 1949, Capanema, Pará, Brazil) is a painter and draftsman who also creates installations and painted reliefs. In 1969, following a trip to Europe, he decided to study architecture, graduating from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA) in 1974. Working initially with acrylic on canvas, he later explored techniques such as wood relief. Beginning in 1980, he became a professor of art education at UFPA. In 1981, he created the three-dimensional work Recepcôr. Building on this piece, he began producing paintings depicting small mechanisms composed of axles, cranks, and color plates, while also incorporating everyday objects such as bottles. Several of his canvases evoke local culture, drawing on the vibrant hues and geometric forms of houses and open-air market stalls. In 1985, embarking on a new line of inquiry, he created works reinterpreting the drawings and paintings found in local bars and public restrooms. In other series, he merges imagery from the realm of consumerism with visual motifs recurring throughout the working-class neighborhoods of his hometown. In 1998, he presented the installation Bandeiras [Flags] at the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo (MAM São Paulo) and the State Museum of Pará, appropriating 143 municipal flags from across Pará and arranging them across the museum walls. In 1999, with the work Incêndio [Fire], he was awarded the Grand Prize at the 6th Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador.