Hélio Menezes

Born in Salvador in 1986, he holds a master’s degree and is a doctoral candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo, where he also works as a researcher at the Center for the Study of Social Markers of Difference (NUMAS) and the Ethno-History center. His master’s thesis (Between the Seen and the Unseen: the Construction of the Concept of Afro-Brazilian Art, 2017) was written in parallel with his research for the Afro-Atlantic Histories exhibition (MASP and Instituto Tomie Ohtake, 2018), where he served as one of the curators.

He holds a degree in International Relations and Social Sciences from the University of São Paulo and was international coordinator of the World Social Forum in Belém (Brazil, 2009), Dakar (Senegal, 2011) and Tunis (Tunisia, 2013). In addition to his work as a researcher and independent curator, he has taught several courses on the subject, including “The Black Presence in Brazilian Art: Between Representation Policies and Representational Spaces” (MASP), “Afro-Brazilian Arts and Artists: Definitions in Dispute and Case Studies” (UNIFESP), “Revisiting the Concept of Afro-Brazilian Art”(Pinacoteca SP), among others. His current PhD research deals more specifically with contemporary Afro-Brazilian artistic production.