Lisson Studio
Dalton Paula
Dalton Paula at Sertão Negro
Lisson Gallery is pleased to present its debut solo exhibition 'Infâncias Negras' with acclaimed Brazilian artist Dalton Paula, featuring a powerful new body of work that reclaims and re-centers Black childhoods as vital spaces of joy, memory, resilience, and cultural continuity. Marking a significant expansion of his practice, Paula moves beyond his celebrated portraiture to create vivid, narrative-filled compositions that depict moments of play, ritual, celebration, and communal life—each rendered against his signature blue-green backgrounds, a visual nod to Brazil’s tradition of studio portraiture.
Sertão Negro was founded by Brazilian artist Dalton Paula and scholar Ceiça Ferreira as a centre for artistic practice, environmental care, and collective learning, located in the Cerrado biome in central Brazil. Rooted in a dialogue with the quilombo traditions of the Território Kalunga, Sertão Negro honors ancestral ways of living and resisting, weaving these histories into its vision of cultural and ecological sovereignty.
“In my first painting lessons, the teacher told me that when we put light on something, we bring it to attention, whether it’s a person, an object… So I thought: ‘I want to highlight this nose’ because it’s the nose I have, a beautiful nose, so I want to show it nicely. Then I start painting this nose in beige, and that highlights it, and it becomes a signature element.”
Running concurrently with the Lisson Gallery exhibition, Paula’s art school and residency, Sertão Negro, will present a special project at Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, opening September 13. Founded in Goiás, Brazil, Sertão Negro extends beyond the arts, integrating its educational and studio provision with a self-sustaining farm and garden. This multidisciplinary, emancipatory project is modeled after the tradition of quilombos—communities formed by escaped enslaved peoples—and is rooted in Afro-Brazilian knowledge systems, ecological stewardship, and intergenerational learning. Sertão Negro will also participate in the 36th Bienal de São Paulo this fall in the form of an architectural and participatory installation.
Established in 2021 on the northern edge of Goiânia, Sertão Negro is a community-rooted project operating at the intersection of art, ecology, pedagogy, and emancipation. Taking its basis from the ongoing artistic practice of Dalton Paula – that varies in media from painting, to ceramics, film, collage and photography – the work of the entire organisation similarly looks to study and reinforce the continuing influence of historical figures and traditions of African descent on the surrounding landscape, which in turn can illicit a reflection on Brazil’s own wider colonial past.
Rooted in a dialogue with the quilombo traditions of the Território Kalunga, Sertão Negro honors ancestral ways of living and resisting, weaving these histories into its vision of cultural and ecological sovereignty.
Until 6 December 2025, Dalton Paula’s art school and residency, Sertão Negro, will be exhibiting Território Vivo at Storefront for Art and Architecture. Throughout this exhibition, the gallery becomes an active extension of Sertão Negro and the networks of support that have emerged from their work. Sertão Negro’s presence unfolds through artworks, archives, films, and a series of weekly public programs led by members of the collective in partnership with local organizations. Each embodied gathering—ranging from recurring Capoeira sessions to crafting workshops—affirms that knowledge is collective, care is mutual, and art is inseparable from everyday life.