Guerreiro do Divino Amor Wins PIPA Prize and Expands Atlas Superficcional Mundial

Swiss-born, Rio-based artist Guerreiro do Divino Amor, 36, won the 2025 PIPA Prize, one of Brazil's most significant visual arts awards. His ongoing project, Atlas Superficcional Mundial, uses what he terms 'superficções'—hyper-realistic, neo-realistic, or documentary works—to dissect complex societal themes like political and religious power, social inequality, state violence, and population whitening strategies. Through videos, panels, and magazines, he creates apocalyptic portraits of cities and regions, having worked in Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Brasília since 2005. His work directly names powerful figures like Silvio Santos, João Doria, William Bonner, Eduardo Cunha, Silas Malafaia, and pastor Davi Miranda, whose daughter once sued him; he was acquitted in what he called a 'very beautiful sentence.' With a vivid, internet-referenced aesthetic that challenges hegemonic visual standards, the artist draws from his architecture training in Brussels and childhood influences like soap operas and Xuxa's TV shows. He describes his mission as 'unraveling' ancient, familiar structures of domination perpetuated by media, family, genealogy, and symbolic capital. Future chapters of the Atlas will explore Switzerland, Italy, and Mexico. The artist's name, Guerreiro do Divino Amor, combines his real surname with a teenage provocation against evangelical co-option, now representing his life's mission.