From June 12 to September 19, 2026, Jonathas de Andrade (Maceió, 1982) takes center stage at Galleria Continua, Paris Marais, with the exhibition project Ivresse d’une vie de bains de mer.
As the artist confided to Arianna Di Genova in an interview published in the Italian daily il manifesto in April 2022: “I believe art converges on a radical pedagogy in the reinvention of the present. […] I always look to art that tells stories: aesthetic experiences have the task of reactivating something, especially when what is happening is discouraging and carries a good dose of defeatism. […] The idea of representation is particularly bizarre in a country like Brazil, with so many and multiple voices. The different perspectives and life experiences are sometimes radically distant, given the deeply unequal context in which we live. Yet, faced with such a terrifying present, I believe these voices end up adding together, converging that kaleidoscope of perceptions. I am interested in discovering how art can foster encounters: it is an overwhelming gift, one that has an impact on the body and on memory.“
For the Paris project, de Andrade turned his attention and research toward the Brazilian canoeiros and jangadeiros communities, with the intent of rendering the beauty of their distinct practices — and, through them, a different and characteristic visual code. The chosen title, literally The Intoxication of a Life Spent Swimming in the Sea, is an ode drawn from a poem written by the artist himself; the vivid, saturated colors of the works on display convey the essence and richness of a plurality of visions and cultures that have made the Brazilian horizon so expansive and generous.
With a gaze always trained on the condition of his homeland, de Andrade’s artistic practice seems to invoke the activism and force of métissage — a concept decoded for the visual and performing arts in the 1960s by artists such as Hélio Oiticica. “The blending of fantasy and documentation,” de Andrade observes, “is an opportunity: it can shake society and invite the public to form their own questions.”
Moving from Brazilian Neo-Concretism through to a celebration of abstraction and the irreplaceable essence of form inspired by Malevich, the space de Andrade maps plunges the viewer into the waters of an artistic navigation driven by the hypnotic force of light, movement, and Latin heat.
It is the repetition of a collective gesture that makes the Earth and the world of its people — as testified by Jangadeiros e Canoeiros (2025), filmed between the sea of Maceió and the São Francisco river. And it is in de Andrade’s compositional choices that a research of sociological scope finds its most luminous instruments: those of art.
Jonathas de Andrade, Ivresse d’une vie de bains de mer (2026) exhibition view, Galleria Continua, Paris Marais. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Continua. Photo Hafid Lhachmi – ADAGP Paris.
Article by Floriana Savino
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