Brazilian artist's anti-colonialism work resonates with Chinese audience

The Brazilian artist once mentioned his interest in the art of British figurative painter Francis Bacon. However, unlike Bacon who painted disfigured, mutilated bodies, Oba said he works with "the concept of black, miscegenated, historic bodies", which were exploited, abused and overlooked by colonialism.

For example, Tiger on show in Gallery 6 depicts a black man staring at the viewers in misery. With his head separated from his neck, the man crawls on his hands and knees as an animal does.

"The painting shows the exploited, oppressed black bodies, which are often fetishized or portrayed as beasts under the colonial gaze," said Rao, adding that "Yet, these black bodies, especially those miscegenated ones, have become bearers of a unique, syncretic identity. Enslaved in the past, they have also become the inheritors of the diasporic culture as they integrated into and established themselves in South America."