ROME.- This selection of works by Miguel Afa for rhinoceros brings together paintings conceived and produced in Rome specifically for the artist’s first solo exhibition in Italy. Shown for the first time, the series reflects his personal experiences in the city where body, memory, and place intertwine in new ways. Known for his deeply human approach, Afa structures his work around affective experiences that shape his understanding of time. These include moments of daily life in Brazil and in Italy, memories shared with loved ones, Brazilian and Italian landscapes, and encounters with Italian art history — specifically, the influence of Caravaggio. In this sense, time takes material form, revealing ways of contemplating its passing in both objects and landscapes. “The time that lives in me” encompasses these relationships between life, memory, and place. As the artist states, “Memory is a body: longing [saudade*] is a backyard,” evoking an affective space where memories, experiences, and desires intersect.
Place and affection are central to Afa’s work. During his residency in Rome, the artist depicts landscapes and architectural structures drawn from his close and far surroundings. Some of these sites evoke a dialogue between places connected to Rio de Janeiro, his city of origin in Brazil, and those encountered during his time in Italy. Moreover, whereas some works are based on photographs, others take source solely within Afa’s memory. As an essential element of the artist’s work, the image of the backyard often appears in the artists’ compositions as a significant space, expressing tenderness. The Brazilian poet Manoel de Barros suggests that great worlds exist within small spaces, such as the backyard: “I think the backyard where we played is bigger than the city”. This idea resonates in Afa’s practice, where both intimate and collective spaces are explored through multiple forms, activating memories that traverse geography and time. In composing this series, the artist draws on elements from the world around him — operating as living archives that carry traces of crossings, displacements, and continuities. Painting thus becomes a symbolic practice: a site of formation, encounter, storytelling, and imaginative engagement.
By engaging with monumentality, heritage, and memory, Afa stretches the scale of his subjects. These paintings assert an expressively monumental presence, while focusing on intimate scenes unfolding in different moments in life. Within this coexistence, the notion of heritage expands: it encompasses not only physical structures, but also the emotional ones. The notion of saudade, intertwined with the artist’s experience of time, structures these images: a memory that moves rather than freezes, where landscapes, bodies, and affection are continuously renewed.
*A word of Brazilian Portuguese origin that does not have a direct translation into English, but which is similar to the term “longing”.
