New Publication: A Lua e Eu (The Moon and I) — Paulo Nimer Pjota
Paulo Nimer Pjota: A Lua e Eu (The Moon and I)
In spring 2025, Kunstinstituut Melly presents A Lua e Eu (The Moon and I), the first institutional solo exhibition by Brazilian artist Paulo Nimer Pjota. Running from 17 May to 21 September, the exhibition marks an important milestone in the artist’s career, not only introducing a new body of work, but also accompanied by the publication of a richly illustrated monograph that captures the scope and spirit of his practice over the past five years.
Visual sampling and the art of montage
Paulo Nimer Pjota is known for his large-scale compositions that combine painting on raw canvas and found metal sheets. His practice brings together visual fragments from archaeology, street culture, comic books, advertising, music, and mythology. Rather than layering these images in a fixed narrative, he arranges them in loose constellations, allowing them to drift, cluster, and transform.
Pjota often likens this process to the methods of a hip-hop producer: cutting, sampling, and remixing. A mask becomes a moon, a moon becomes a vessel, a domestic object turns mythic. In this way, his works are open and associative, inviting viewers to find their own connections between histories and symbols.
From the urban to the introspective
While earlier works were grounded in the energy of urban iconography, A Lua e Eu introduces a more reflective dimension. Drawing on memories of his childhood in São José do Rio Preto, a small inland city in Brazil, Pjota now explores images of rural and domestic life: plants, animals, interiors, and dreamlike figures. These motifs hover between recollection and imagination, expressing what the artist describes as a “fantastical and spiritual thought drawn from fables and myths.”
Installed within a large-scale mural painted directly onto the gallery walls, the exhibition creates a shared pictorial space where works float in suspension, mirroring the loose, associative rhythm of his canvases.
The book: A Lua e Eu (The Moon and I)
Published by DISTANZ Verlag, the new monograph brings together Pjota’s work from the past five years, with essays by writer Mateus Nunes and Gabi Ngcobo, Director of Kunstinstituut Melly, alongside a wide-ranging conversation between the artist and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Much like the exhibition itself, the book traces Pjota’s shift from an iconography rooted in the streets toward an introspective mode shaped by memory, spirituality, and mythology. Generously illustrated, it offers both a visual journey through his montage practice and a deeper reflection on the poetics of his imagery.
Why this matters
A Lua e Eu (The Moon and I) is more than a title: borrowed from a song by Brazilian musician Cassiano, it is a guiding note for the mood of resonance and introspection that characterizes this new chapter of Pjota’s career. The exhibition and publication together mark a significant moment: the artist’s first institutional solo presentation and his debut in the Netherlands.
For Kunstinstituut Melly, the project underscores the institution’s ongoing commitment to supporting artists at pivotal points in their practice, while opening up spaces of dialogue between contemporary art, music, history, and lived experience.
Buy the book
The monograph A Lua e Eu (The Moon and I) is now available through our webshop! Secure your copy and explore the imaginative worlds of Paulo Nimer Pjota: a landmark publication capturing an artist in full creative stride.