Zamboada Paulo Agi

Starting April 11, the artist from Mato Grosso do Sul, Paulo Agi, presents the exhibition Zamboada at Gruta Espaço de Arte Contemporânea. In his first solo show in São Paulo, Agi displays a series of oil paintings produced between 2025 and 2026. The works investigate the presence of the Pantanal fauna in a territory crisscrossed by environmental tensions and human occupation.
 

The series continues the artist's research into the landscapes of his home state, Mato Grosso do Sul, involving the reconstruction of both concrete and imaginary memories. By using images of nature—such as clouds and animals in the fields—Agi creates works that transport the viewer to universes shaped by regional experience and a deep affective memory.
 

On the canvases, animals emerge in nocturnal scenes revealed by distinct light sources, ranging from natural phenomena like lightning and fires to monitoring devices. The night, central to Marina Schiesari’s curatorial proposal, is the condition that makes visible an ecosystem intersected by human presence.
 

The Influence of Manoel de Barros
 

The images are constructed through a process of scraping over layers of oil. By removing material from the surface, Agi allows figures to emerge, defined by the contrast with what he calls the "eternal background of the Pantanal." The expression, taken from O Livro de Pré-Coisas by Manoel de Barros, grounds the spatiality of the paintings. For the artist, Barros's literature is not merely a citation, but a foundation for thinking about the depth of the canvases as layers of time that precede the image itself.
 

Agi’s life in São Paulo acts as a catalyst for this process. Geographical distance allows for a refining of the images, transforming the documentary record of archives and reports into a pictorial elaboration where memory and the imaginary take center stage.
 

Surveillance and the Invasive Gaze
 

Although the paintings exclusively depict animals, the issue of surveillance organizes the atmosphere of the show. The lighting falling on the bodies suggests a territory under constant monitoring, where contact with the wild is mediated by control devices. Artificial light pulls the animal out of its state of latency and imposes a visibility that borders on intrusion.
 

In this environment, animals are caught in fleeting moments. The exhibition's narrative lies in the tension between the species' right to isolation and the human need to map and fence the territory. Under the beam of light, mutualistic relationships between species that resist in a permanently surveilled environment are revealed.
 

Zamboada and "Campo Limpo"
 

The exhibition highlights two modes of landscape that coexist in contemporary Mato Grosso do Sul. On one side is the "zamboada," a term designating dense vegetation and the complexity of wildlife. On the other, the "campo limpo" (clean field), an open area cleared for monoculture or cattle ranching.
 

In Agi’s paintings, this contrast points to a process of friction. The fauna appears as a persistent presence in an ecosystem undergoing reconfiguration, where preservation and exploitation remain in dispute. By recording the nocturnal encounters between animals and the incidence of light, Zamboada reflects on the permanence of the wild in the face of territorial contamination.