Babi Mello

Belo Horizonte – MG, 1997

Babi Mello (they/he) is a non-binary person, transdisciplinary artist, and art director with a BA in Visual Arts from UNICAMP. In their research, their own body is used as the territory of investigation, as well as its main media and theme. “I’m interested in exploring its extensions, the things that maintain it, as well as its private and shared memories; the traumatic experiences that have shaped it; its health and maintenance; the projected image that can be edited; the divergence between the gender I was assigned and how I recognize myself; and the paradoxes that run between this body and the world”, they say.  

Issues of gender, sexuality, violence, memory, dysphoria, and normativity and self-image orbit their artistic creations, which take into consideration the duality between the physical and the virtual/cyber matter. As a transdisciplinary artist, they don’t limit themselves to a specific artistic language. In their image-making process, they reach to performance, ceramics, objects, painting, and photography, thus weaving a semantic web that is rich with possibilities. 

Currently, they are dedicating themselves to the subject of images produced as virtual communication, as well as to the paradox of the duality between physical and cybernetic matter and the relationship of avatars/characters created with transvestigender people. They also understand the positive possibilities that crypto art and NFTs can bring to independent artists of the Global South, and they have been researching and participating in the Brazilian and global NFT communities more and more. They are also part of MAGMA, one of the most relevant collectives of Brazilian transdisciplinary artists who are exploring NFTs in the Ethereum and Tezos platforms. 

They have participated in many exhibitions. Amongst the solo shows are “Foguentinha Online” at Casa do Lago, in Campinas (SP) and “Oficina Sexologia Antipatriarcal e Auto Exame Ginecológico” at Casa Plana, in São Paulo – both in 2019. Amongst the group shows, there are “Diluição do eu” at SP-arte (2021), “MAGMA 2nd Batch” at Foundation.app (2021), “Mostra Primeiros Passos” at the gallery Galeria Gravura Brasileira, in São Paulo, and “Mostra Delas” at the theater Teatro Polytheama, in Jundiaí (SP) – both in 2018. In 2019, they participated in the artistic residency “Sincronias Incertas” at the Centro de Referência de Dança, in São Paulo.

Artworks:

“Transmasculinidade sensível” [“Sensitive transmasculinity”] (2020). Video performance. Duration: 10’. Available here. 

“Lápide” [“Headstone”] (2020). Photo of perishable clay sculpture.

“Trans Superstar *” (2021). Acrylic paint, ceramics, jeans, and rhinestone w/o cotton canvas. Dimensions: 100cm x 70 cm.