Silvana Mendes

São Luís, MA, Brazil, 1991
Lives and works in São Luís, MA, Brazil

A visual multi-artist whose practice manifests itself through a research on racial issues, territories and affirmation policies. An Arts graduate student at the Federal University of Maranhão, she works with collage, painting, video and photography in pursuance of new meanings for symbols and visual narratives. Through her "affectionate collages", Mendes aims for the deconstruction of negative visualities and stereotypes imposed on black bodies in the course of Afro-Atlantic history. The artist also turns to mural and wheatpaste posters as support for the dissemination of what she considers a "didactic decolonizing artistic practice", seeking to debate the places of power in works of art, the elitism and the social/racial profile of artistic movements.