Pedro Moraleida's Posthumous Exhibition at Instituto Tomie Ohtake Reveals Over 1,900 Works

Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo presents 'Pedro Moraleida – Canção do Sangue Fervente,' a major exhibition of the artist who died by suicide in 1999 at age 22. Curated by Paulo Miyada, the show features more than 450 paintings and nearly 1,450 drawings produced during Moraleida's brief but intense career. His parents, Luiz Bernardes and Nilcéa Moraleida, initiated posthumous research by inviting professor Gastão Frota and colleagues like Cinthia Marcelle, Sara Ramo, and Emilio Maciel to examine the oeuvre. Later, researchers and curators including Rodrigo Moura and Veronica Stigger further studied the collection. Moraleida's work is characterized by exceptional force, exploring themes of scatology, sexuality, and the body as an affront, influenced by philosophers like Bataille, Artaud, Deleuze, Derrida, and Lacan. Miyada describes the artist's approach as deciding that art must always be 'a scream, a pustule, a song of boiling blood,' feeding on unconfessed desires and traumas rather than polishing surfaces. The exhibition runs until February 17, located at Av. Brigadeiro Faria Lima, 201. The raw intensity and violence of his painting, depicting torn bodies and amputated hands, disturb viewers because its beauty is rooted in profound pain. Moraleida's artistic path was marked by a rupture with moral and aesthetic canons, a stance that may have contributed to his tragic end.