Meu Tema Sou Eu (My Theme Is Me), the new exhibition dedicated to the work of Emmanuel Nassar, marks the reopening of the Centro Cultural Bienal das Amazônias in Belém.

Curated by Vânia Leal, the show is the first in over a decade to broadly survey the artist’s work in his hometown. The deep ties between Nassar’s practice and Belém’s visual vocabulary are reinforced through an extensive selection of paintings, installations, and objects from the 1980s and 1990s, alongside recent projects such as Lataria Espacial (2022), previously presented at MAM São Paulo and MAM Rio. Drawn from various private collections across the city and brought together for this occasion, the works trace connections between territory and belonging that are inherent to the artist’s practice.

The indivisibility of Emmanuel Nassar and his points of reference is made all the more visible in the exhibition—particularly through the recurring presence of Amazonian popular culture and the dialogues it establishes with contemporary art, especially Pop and Concretism. “For an artist over 70 like myself, every exhibition is a retrospective. And this one, at CCBA, is especially meaningful—it marks a reunion with the local audience and, in particular, with collector friends who bring back fond memories,” says Nassar.