Lives and work in Camanducaia, Minas Gerais, Brazil
A multidisciplinary artist, Nilda Neves (1961) studied accountancy and was a math teacher, shopkeeper and hairdresser, among other professions, before dedicating herself to the visual arts and literature. Her work is closely linked to memory: each figure, animal or piece of landscape on her canvases corresponds to a "story" derived from her memories in the backlands. Now living in Camanducaia, in the Serra da Mantiqueira region and far from the reality of the backlands where she grew up, the Bahian sertão and its stories continue to be the focus of her intense production.
Among her exhibitions, she has had the following solo shows: Nilda Neves: visagens e assombros do sertão, at Central Galeria (Sao Paulo, 2023); Sertão em devaneios, at Centro Cultural Santo Amaro (Sao Paulo, 2019); Narrativas do sertão, at Face Gabinete de Arte (Sao Paulo, 2018); and Meu Sertão, at Galeria Mezanino (Sao Paulo, 2015). Among the group exhibitions are: Serra da Capivara: pedra viva, o legado de Niède Guidon, at the Museu Brasileiro de Escultura e Ecologia (Sao Paulo, 2022); Now, at the Museu Inimá de Paula (Belo Horizonte, 2022); Alegria, uma invenção, at Central Galeria (Sao Paulo, 2022); Modernismo desde aqui, Paço das Artes (Sao Paulo, 2022); Tudo o que você me dá é seu, Central Galeria (Sao Paulo, 2020); O Sagrado na Arte Moderna Brasileira, Museu de Arte Sacra (Sao Paulo, 2019); as well as several editions of the Bienal Naïfs do Brasil, Sesc Piracicaba (2020, 2018 and 2016). Her work is in the collections of the Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro, the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo and the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Sorocaba.