For the Galleries sector of Art Basel, Almeida & Dale proposes a vision of the Brazilian imaginary in which spirituality, the subconscious, memory, and existential experience enter into dialogue with science, numerology, music, culture, perception, and migration.

Balancing mystical tensions and formal constructions, the selection unfolds a universe where dream, eroticism, and alchemy traverse different generations of Brazilian art, revealing sensitive correspondences between matter, time, and imagination.

The tradition of Chinese painting reinterpreted by Chen-Kong Fang and charged with spirituality, the vulnerable intimacy of Leonilson, the surreal landscapes of Rayana Rayo, the alchemical and erotic universe of Tunga, and the sensory and political investigations of Vivian Caccuri compose an immersive environment, with works rarely seen in Europe. This ensemble is traversed by a profound sense of saudade: a melancholic longing where fantasy, experience, and desire coexist.

Chen-Kong Fang (Tung Cheng, China, 1931 – São Paulo, Brazil, 2012) brought the sensibility of classical Chinese painting, especially its transcendental quality, into dialogue with Western pictorial traditions after immigrating to Brazil in the 1950s. In his work, Fang sought to capture immaterial characteristics of things, revealing mysterious aspects of the visible realm.

José Leonilson (Fortaleza, 1957 – São Paulo, 1993) is represented by works from the final years of his short life, a period of concentrated personal and professional intensity, as he faced the late stages of AIDS. Across painting, drawing, embroidery, and sculpture, he built a vocabulary of signs and symbols charged with intimacy, eroticism, fragility, desire, and mortality.

Rayana Rayo (1989, Recife) explores sensitive and subjective experiences through dreamlike scenery and a subdued color palette. Figures that allude to landscapes, flora, fauna, and other beings materialize memories, while establishing a dialogue with Pernambuco’s rich artistic tradition.

Tunga (Palmares, 1952 – Rio de Janeiro, 2016) crafted a singular mythopoetic universe throughout his 40-year career. His work, rich in organic forms and symbolic language, constructs immersive narratives that explore transformation, perception, and the subconscious. Each piece is a threshold to its own internal logic, ranging from sexual symbolism to metaphysical understanding of the body.

Vivian Caccuri (1986, São Paulo) investigates the intersections of sound, perception, politics, and technology. In recent years, Caccuri has incorporated scientific data and fiction into her investigation of mythologies surrounding mosquitoes and other insects, reframing the sonic and symbolic dimensions of human perception of these animals — their role as sound emitters and disease vectors.