Sidney Amaral

Sidney Amaral was born in Santana, a neighborhood in north São Paulo, in 1973. He graduated with a degree in art education from the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP) in 1998. Between 1991 and 1998 he studied design at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, and Academic painting with Pedro Alzaga and photography at the ECOS School of Photography. He died at the age of 44 in São Paulo, in 2017. With a professional career spanning nearly two decades, Amaral participated in several group and individual exhibitions, deciding every single day to fight to secure his place in the contemporary art world. Looked upon as one of the leading names in Afro-Brazilian contemporary art for his approach to ethno-racial themes, Sidney Amaral contributed a great deal to this segment of the visual arts, from addressing historical themes such as structural slavery in Brazil and its continuation in the present, to teaching that black artists can tackle whatever subjects they wish and work with the materials of their choosing.

Work by Sidney Amaral is in the collections of the Museu Afro Brasil, the Pinacoteca do Estado in São Paulo, the Tamarind Institut (New Mexico, USA), Itaú Cultural Collection, and the Central Gallery of Contemporary Art. His work can also be found in the collections of several private collectors and have been included in group exhibitions such as: Metrópole: Experiência Paulistana (Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo, Brazil, 2017), Modos de ver o Brasil (Oca Parque do Ibirapuera, São Paulo, Brazil, 2017), Territórios: Artists of African descent in the Pinacoteca collection (Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo, 2016), Histórias Mestiças (Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil, 2014), Encontro entre dois mares (Valencia Biennial, Spain, 2007), Réplica e Rebeldia – Traveling exhibition with artists from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde and Mozambique (Maputo National Art Museum, Mozambique, 2006), Siexpo – Museum of Natural History (Luanda, Angola, 2006).