Image: South London Gallery
South London Gallery will present 'Paulo Nimer Pjota: Encantados' in its Main Gallery from 1 May to 23 August 2026, showing a new series of paintings alongside an expansive mural painted directly onto the gallery walls. The free exhibition centres on the Brazilian artist’s large-scale works, which combine art history, popular culture, mythology and folk tales to build imaginary scenes that leave interpretation open to the viewer.
The gallery describes Pjota’s practice as rooted in oil, tempera and acrylic on canvas. His work draws on sampling and remixing, borrowing from the techniques of Brazilian hip-hop and rap music, as well as from his experience as a graffiti artist as a teenager. According to the gallery text, the exhibition’s imagery includes magical environments filled with mythical characters, animals and imaginary beasts.
Recurring motifs run through the presentation. The sun, stars and moon appear repeatedly in Pjota’s work, alongside vases, shells and other vessels, often shown overflowing with flowers and plants. The gallery also points to the presence of music in the images, including a three-headed beast in one work that plays trumpet, horn, drum and saxophone at the same time. The exhibition is framed as a new universe in which established ideas of value are dismantled and redefined, with the works resisting a single narrative.
Pjota, born in 1988 in São José do Rio Preto, Brazil, lives and works in São Paulo. South London Gallery’s exhibition page notes recent solo exhibitions at François Ghebaly in Los Angeles, Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, Mendes Wood DM in Paris, New York and São Paulo, and Maureen Paley & Studio M in London, as well as at The Power Station in Dallas. It also lists institutional group exhibitions at CCBB in Rio de Janeiro, Museu de Arte do Rio, Kunsthal Rotterdam and Fondation Carmignac in Porquerolles.
The exhibition is part of a season at South London Gallery that also includes Ranti Bam’s 'Sacred Groves' in the Fire Station Galleries, running on the same dates. The gallery’s August newsletter said 'Encantados' was in its final weeks and highlighted the show’s free access in the Main Gallery. The exhibition page notes that the Main Gallery is open Wednesday from 12pm to 9pm and Thursday to Sunday from 12pm to 6pm.
South London Gallery says 'Paulo Nimer Pjota: Encantados' is generously supported by Maureen Paley, London; Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brussels, Paris and New York; and François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles and New York. The gallery also lists a related British Sign Language tour of 'Encantados' and 'Sacred Groves' on 16 August 2026, as well as a curator tour on 19 August 2026.
