Ubiratã Braga

Ubiratã Braga (Porto Alegre, 1965) is a Brazilian painter living in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul (southern Brazil). He has been active as a prominent artist since the late eighties, although he lives a very secluded life, fully dedicated to art, through the decades. 
Despite this, his artistic production has gained great prestige in Brazil through participation in numerous exhibitions and multiple awards. His work was influenced by his friend, Iberê Camargo, and Anselm Kiefer.
== Career ==
Ubiratã Braga took drawing courses from Carlos Pasquetti, tempera and gouache from Yeddo Titze, and engraving from Armando Almeida. He graduated in Visual Arts at Instituto de Artes da Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul|UFRGS, and participated in several collective and solo exhibitions in Brazil."Ubiratã Braga". Museu do Trabalho
He was one of the highlights of João Fahrion Project, which was created by the Southern state government to find new talents. Ubiratã was part of a group of artists in Rio Grande do Sul who established themselves in the 90s and became known nationally in Brazil.Machado, Ana Méri Zavadil. Reatando os Nós: Arte & Fato Galeria, Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Rio Grande do Sul - MAC/RS e Torreão, espaços de legitimação em Porto Alegre (1985-1997). Mestrado. Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, 2011, p. 19; 23 During this period, his work was widely sold and was recognised by the arts market. As the artist, professor and researcher Felipe Caldas said, Ubiratã "got his name nationally known, to a level that the majority of the artists from the South of Brazil didn't manage to achieve".Caldas, Felipe Bernardes. O Campo Enquanto Mercado: um estudo sobre o cenário mercadológico de Porto Alegre (1990–2012). Mestrado. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 2013, pp. 188; 198
From1997 to 2013, Ubiratã withdrew himself from the exhibitions. According to the art critic Francisco Dalcol, "against the pressure and demand of the arts market, Ubiratã Braga keeps his work faraway from the commercial influence. Due to this attitude, he usually doesn't participate in any exhibitions" - although he hasn't stopped painting.Dalcol, Francisco. "Ubiratã Braga abre sua primeira exposição individual em 15 anos". Zero Hora, 21/08/2013 According to the professor and art critic Cristiano Goldschmidt, the "one and a half decade absence from exhibition was Ubiratã Braga's own decision, as he took this opportunity to rethink his career after having had a good outcome from his last solo exhibition at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil|Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil do Rio de Janeiro, em 1997. Before that, his work already had several collective and solo exhibition, as well as important awards".Goldschmidt, Cristiano. "Uma obra que faz agitar a alma e tremer a carne". Página do autor, 08/05/2014 In 2013, he rejoined the arts market, with his solo exhibition Céus de Chumbo sobre Horizontes de Ferro [Lead Skies over Iron Horizons], where he was awarded the Prêmio Açorianos [Azorean Award], in the Fine Arts category.
== Work ==
Ubiratã's work generally presents signs and figurative elements in abstract environments. It has an expressionist and somewhat autobiographical character. He said himself that "my thoughts are only a springboard, a trigger for me to work, to express myself and to give meaning to my life". For the art critic Luiz Eduardo Achutti, Braga is "a great artist, who makes no concessions to anything or anyone. His art makes him live. They are vital pictorial movements and decisions in an organic work that if even if they somehow depart from the world, from the days, from some photographed image - there is still a resumed idea, the continuity of the creative process, that turns itself to the inner soul and spirit of the artist".Achutti, Luiz Eduardo Robinson. "Obra/Vida: os signos justapostos na pintura de Ubiratã Braga". In: Revista GAMA - Estudos Artísticos, 2015 (6): 185-192
Goldschmidt said that "the fascination provoked in spectators by Braga's paintings does not depend only on his work. It requires an engagement from them, as an interlocutor. Not that the painting itself is not sufficient, but because we need time and dedication so that we can appreciate what's in the work - and also realise what absent from the painting.
In the view of the curator Paula Ramos, Braga's work shows "dense and symbolic pictorial spaces, not as a result of a project or a pre-established intention, but of the artistic trajectory's confrontation with the supports and materials. Slow and demanding in the process, sometimes screaming, sometimes whispering in its form, Ubiratã Braga's drawings and paintings are born as fields of formal experience and expression of affections. They give visibility, each in their own way, to the whirlwind of feelings, understanding and memories that move the artist, in his attempt to establish order to emergent chaos".Apud Achutti, op. cit. "The works are the result of a permanent process of reflection and doubt, which unfolds striking aspects of the Braga's poetics, such as figuration, superimpositions and sedimentations, as well as the confessional character"."Céus De Chumbo Sobre Horizontes De Ferro – Ubiratã Braga". Sul 21, 30/08/2013
=== Some of Braga's exhibitions ===
* Salão COPESUL/MARGS (collective exhibition, Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, 1989)
* ArteSul 89 (collective exhibition, Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, 1989)Machado, p. 60
* 47º Salão Paranaense (collective exhibition, Curitiba, 1990)
* Galeria Arte&Fato (solo exhibition, Porto Alegre, 1991)
* Mostra do Desenho Brasileiro (collective exhibition, Curitiba, 1994)"Ubiratã Braga". In: Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural de Arte e Cultura Brasileiras. Itaú Cultural, 2021
* Jovem Pintura Figurativa no Rio Grande do Sul (Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, 1994)
* I :pt:Bienal_do_Mercosul|Bienal do Mercosul (collective exhibition, Porto Alegre, 1995)Caldas, p. 451
* Paintings - Ubiratã Braga (solo exhibition, Galeria Bolsa de Arte, Porto Alegre, 1995 e 1997)
* Paintings - Ubiratã Braga (solo exhibition, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 1997)
* Céus de Chumbo sobre Horizontes de Ferro [Lead Skies over Iron Horizons] (solo exhibition, Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, 2013)
=== Awards ===
* 1989: Prêmio em Desenho [Award in Drawing] - Salão COPESUL/MARGS
* 1990: Grande Prêmio [Grand Award] - 47º Salão Paranaense
* 2013: Prêmio Açorianos de Artes Plásticas [Azorean Fine Arts Award]
Category:Brazilian painters
Category:Brazilian painting