Eugênio Chaves Nakayama

São Paulo – SP, 1998

As a trans and non-white person, Eugênio Chaves focuses his artistic research on the study and understanding of non-normative experiences. With a degree in Visual Arts from the Centro Universitário Belas Artes (SP), he is aware that traditional art spaces are still seldom occupied by trans people.

That is why, in his art, he approaches his peer’s struggles as well as makes an effort not to reinforce the notion of trans people as martyrs or prisoners of their own bodies. “I do not fantasize our reality for the other’s delight; instead, I bring a piece of a truthful reality, in an attempt to normalize these representations”, he defends.

Eugênio Chaves’ creations often refer to personal experiences, with an approach that is simultaneously brute, painful, tender, delicate, gory, and part of a queer imaginary. They are also a part of his investigations into the “inherently queer” in everyday reality, cyberspace, and culture as a whole.

Artworks:

“Material Humano” [“Human Material”] (2019). Gouache, acrylic ink, encaustic, pencil, glitter, and adhesives on plastered canvas.  Dimensions: 84,5 cm (diameter).

“Untitled” (2018). Metal print. Dimensions: 20cm x 30cm.

“Vivissecção de um meme do século XXI” [“Vivisection of meme of the XXI century”] (2019). Digital drawing with jet print on paper. Dimensions: 12,5cm x 7cm.