Artist Rubem Robierb, born in the small town of Bacabal in Maranhão State, who has lived and worked for almost 20 years in the United States, where he achieved recognition especially with the sculpture Dream Machine - Dandara, made in 2019 for Tribeca Park in Manhattan, NYC, chose the Benedicto Calixto Art Gallery Foundation in Santos to update his professional career and acknowledge the roots that have allowed him to take prestigious flights.

At the age of 20 he moved to São Paulo, where he studied and worked as a photographer, and his career gained notoriety in 2005 with the exhibition Brésil Autrement in France. Since then, Robierb has worked with galleries and museums around the world, in cities like New York, Zurich, Miami, London, Paris, Milan and Monte Carlo, among others.

Research and experimentation at his Wynwood studio led to the production of powerful works like Bullets and Butterflies, Climate Meltdown, We Rise (videos in Times Square, NYC billboards), and Prayers and Thoughts. In Bullet-Fly Effect, for example, he fuses the delicate body of a butterfly with war materials according to the so-called butterfly effect of Chaos Theory, and in Heart and Power Flowers he explores the relationship between the beautiful and the disturbing in a critique of violence, via powerful allusions to wars and global instability.

Rubem Robierb's works are also marked by social and participatory relevance, as in Dream Machine - Dandara, a powerful tribute to the transgender and nonbinary community and its resilience in the face of cultural violence.

Inspired by activist Greta Thunberg's speech, Robierb created the acclaimed installation Climate Meltdown during the 2019 Miami Art Basel Week, in which the words How Dare You were carved into a 36-foot, two-ton ice block left to float in a swimming pool for ten hours, until melting completely.

In 2021, inspired by racial justice protests around the world, Robierb exhibited the sculpture Peace Makers in Randall's Island Park in New York, where two identical birds, one black and one white, intertwine, representing peaceful coexistence among different ethnicities and cultures.

In 2023, Randall's Island Park was also the stage for Robierb’s most recent large interactive sculpture, Empower Flower, a lotus flower-shaped sculpture/throne dedicated to female empowerment, where the visitor is invited to sit and take part in the art work.

The present exhibition is a select overview of the artist’s main phases, where the boy with a lantern standing on the bow of a canoe – the soil and root of a tree that supports and merges with him – becomes, not by chance, its captain.

A master in the art of metaphor that consists in giving a thing a name that belongs to something else, Robierb, who clearly sees himself in that boy in the canoe, seems to emulate the Greek philosopher Diogenes who, in broad daylight, went around with a lit lantern searching for truths.

The everyday world thus poses questions which the artist does not evade; on the contrary, it triggers visual solutions that are developed in art works, like evolving sentences in the same personal discourse

These are scholarly proposals translated into accessible language that connote what is, in this curatorship’s conception, one of the striking features of the artist Rubem Robierb: The exploration of the boundaries between different platforms and the combination of traditional techniques with new technologies and forms of expression, creating works and transmuting emotions that defy conventional classification.

In his trajectory, Rubem Robierb seems to fulfill the vocation of the barefoot boy lighting the canoe’s path while crossing the magical waters in the mangrove swamps of his native Trizidela, where life teaches through dreams, vicissitudes and inspirations.

Carlos Zibel and Antonio Carlos Cavalcanti Filho, curators.

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Benedicto Calixto Foundation

The Benedicto Calixto Art Museum Foundation, established by Law No. 154, of May 28, 1986, was named Benedicto Calixto to honor the painter who so dedicated himself to portraying and studying Santos and the surrounding regions. It was inaugurated in 1992 and consists of 69 canvases by Calixto, as well as works by Armando Sendin, Pedro Alexandrino, A. Fernandes, Sizenando Calixto, Angelo Cantú, Salvador Rodrigues Jr., Atayde Mestieri Chammas, Gilberto Winter, Accindino Andrade, Niobe Xandó and Percy Lau, among other renowned artists, totalling 227 works. The museum also holds temporary exhibitions of national and international artists, as well as musical, literary and theatrical events, in addition to promoting art-related courses, lectures and meetings. Since 2003 it has been managed by an association of friends of the Benedicto Calixto Art Museum.

The mansion that houses the museum, built in 1900, is considered a historical heritage site and, with its elegant architecture and gardens, is also a very interesting venue of the institution. Its aim is to disseminate and stimulate artistic production in general, especially in the visual arts; to gather, classify, catalogue and display works considered of high aesthetic level and representative of their time; to conserve and restore works of art; to foster studies and research related to the promotion of the visual arts in the city of Santos; and to maintain permanent cultural services and activities, constituting a dynamic center for the study of the arts in general.

As part of the foundation’s annual program, the Art Museum’s Annual Plan - “Arte na Pinacoteca”, 2nd Edition, brings free cultural events for the public, art exhibitions, catalog, cultural courses and workshops, concerts and choir singing courses with scholarships, awards, lectures and guided tours for students from Santos and the surrounding areas.

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Brasil Terminal Portuário (BTP)

Operating since 2013, BTP – a private terminal for public use – has consolidated itself as the largest container terminal in South America. Located at the Port of Santos, the company was responsible for one of Brazil’s largest environmental offsets and currently has an annual operational capacity of 1.5 million TEU. With a 1,108-meter dock able to receive three ships of the New Panamax Class at the same time, the terminal serves ships with routes to all continents, besides providing cabotage and feeder services. A joint-venture between Terminal Investment Limited and APM Terminals, BTP holds the international certifications AEO (Authorized Economic Operator), ISSO 9001:2015 (Quality), ISO 14001:2015 (Environment), ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational safety and health). More information at www.btp.com.br and at the official site: @brasilterminalportuario.

MSC MEDLOG

Sponsoring the “Art at the Benedicto Calixto Art Museum” Project gives the MSC Group an opportunity to stimulate the consumption of art and make it accessible to a wider public through frequent promotion of events like exhibitions, conferences and workshops. It also strengthens the Group’s commitment to facilitate the access of the Metropolitan Santos public to rich and diverse cultural manifestations, ensuring that different projects reach an ever bigger part of the population.

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Ecovias

Ecovias has managed the Anchieta-Imigrantes Highway System (SAI) since 1998, called Lot 22 of the São Paulo State Concession Program, under the rule of the São Paulo State Regulatory Agency for Delegated Public Transport Services (Artesp). SAI is the main link between the São Paulo metropolitan region and the Port of Santos (Latin America’s largest port), the Cubatão Petrochemical Complex, the ABCD industries and the Baixada Santista. The concessionaire is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the 176.8 km-long road system and for providing services to the approximately 40 million vehicles that pass through the SAI annually.

Rumo

Rumo is the largest railroad operator in Brazil and offers logistics services for rail transport, port lifting and warehousing. The company operates nine transshipment terminals, is present in four ports and manages about 14 thousand kilometers of railroad tracks in the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins. The asset base consists of 1,400 locomotives and 35,000 wagons. Rumo is present in the 19th portfolio of ISE B3, B3’s Corporate Sustainability Index that acknowledges companies that are benchmarks in ESG practices.

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G.Pierotti

Having been forged within Mansueto Pierotti, one of the world’s most traditional ship supply companies, G. PIEROTTI is proud to have preserved its ethical principles and unconditional commitment to the client, which, combined with a modern and innovative management, has consolidated the brand internationally in the segment of ship suppliers. Certified by the most important standards of quality and care for the environment, it projects an even more promising future, with the expansion of its facilities and new horizons to be conquered.

Grupo Tribuna

The Tribuna Group is the largest media conglomerate of the São Paulo state coast and the Vale do Ribeira region. Between all its companies, it reaches more than 2.2 million people in nine municipalities of Metropolitan Santos and in 22 of the Vale do Ribeira region. It is worth highlighting that the Group’s trajectory started in 1984, with the foundation of the newspaper A Tribuna, and expanded its activities to include the Tri FM radio station, the Tribuna TV channel, affiliated to Globo Network, the sites atribuna.com, G1 Santos e Região, GE Santos e Região, and IPAT (A Tribuna research institute). All our companies are absolute leaders in the region. A Tribuna is read by more than 230,000 people every month. Of every 100 TVs turned on, 65 are tuned to Tribuna TV. Tri FM is the number one radio station, with more than 30,000 listeners per minute. Our digital platforms total over 8 million single users. News is our essence, and taking it to you, by whatever media, our commitment. We are the Tribuna Group. When the world changes, we change along. The Tribuna Group, where every news matters.

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RUBEM ROBIERB TEAM

Agent
Bianca Cutait

Production Coordination
HENRIQUE LUZ

Production and Expographic Design
Lumière Cultural

International Logistics
Coral Coil USA

Frames
Syl Arte Molduras

3D printing, fiberglass
Dream Z StudioArt
Falcos Fibra Studio

Interview
Artemtudo

Photography
Henrique Luz

3D & AI Modeling
Cassani Arts - Miami Lumière Cultural
Sold Out Projects
Legal Advice
Aline Freitas

Support
Fundação Gilberto Salvador
Mato Legal Manejo Florestal

Thanks
Gilberto Salvador
Sam Champion
Diogenes Braga
Flora Figueira Marques

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“ARTE NA PINACOTECA” 2nd edition
RUBEM ROBIERB – ROOTS TO FLY

Execution - Ministério da Cultura

Sponsored by
BRASIL TERMINAL PORTUÁRIO (BTP)
MSC
MEDLOG
ECOVIAS
RUMO
G. PIEROTTI

Institutional Support
TV Tribuna

Artist
Rubem Robierb

Exhibition Curatorship
Antonio Carlos Cavalcanti Filho
Carlos Zibel

Initiative
Fundação Pinacoteca
Benedicto Calixto
Roberto Clemente Santini - President
Divanir Machado Netto Tucci - First Vice-President

Directors
Eduardo Paulino
Maurício Guimarães Cury
Roberto Luíz Barroso Filho
Airton Ferreira Vasconcelos

Administration
Silvia Morais de Carvalho

Administrative Manager
José Eduardo Moreira

Thanks to all deputy directors and
to Angela Helena Duó da Rocha
Elias in particular.

Thanks to all deputy directors and
to Angela Helena Duó da Rocha
Elias in particular.

General Coordination and Project Management
Leila Gazzaneo

Production Coordination
Elza Tsumori

Executive Production
Fábio Luiz Salgado

Graphic Design
Sueli Tsumori

Graphic Production
Julia Yara Alves da Cruz

Architecture and Expographic Project

Getulio Tamada
Renata Miranda Pita

Public Relations
Vanessa Giannellini
Scheilla Lisboa
Tatiana Lopes

Revision
Ricardo Sanovick

English Translation
Humberto Moura Neto

Audio Description
Open Senses

Braille Transcription
Laramara

Printing Services
Maistype

Executive Direction
Antonio Carlos Cavalcanti Filho
Leila Gazzaneo

Support
Unisanta
Unimed
Embraps
Cury & Moure Simão
Criando Valor
Oficina de Ideias
ABRINQ

Partnership
City of Santos
City of Cubatão