Nine Painters From One Rio Studio Show for Free

Rio de Janeiro · Art

A studio in Tijuca, seven years of Monday evenings, and a bet that Brazilian collectors would buy figurative painting after all.

01It started with a life-drawing class

In 2017, the exhibition’s organisers say, a group of students at the Escola de Belas Artes, the fine arts school of Rio’s federal university, were taking a class in drawing from a live model. Their teacher was the painter Nelson Macedo, described in the exhibition material as a life-drawing teacher at the school.

Some of them started going to his studio in Tijuca, a residential district in Rio’s north, where another painter, Ana Moura, also taught. What began as extra practice turned into a standing appointment.

From 2017 they met there on Monday evenings, for about seven years by the organisers’ count. They drew and painted, and they talked about film, poetry, folk art and the history of their own trade.

The studio is called Ateliê Oruniyá. Nine of the painters who passed through it are now hanging work together in a public exhibition hall in central Rio.

02The part that concerns anyone who buys art

The show’s curator, Ayla de Oliveira, is one of the nine. She is a painter born in 1997, represented by the Mitre Galeria in Belo Horizonte, and she has shown at this same venue before.

Her account of the group’s early years is the most useful thing in the exhibition material. “There was a certain fear that there would be no space in the market for our work, because it was more figurative painting,” she says.

“When I entered the art market, I began to see, and to show the others, that there were indeed people interested in getting to know painting, and that there was space for this line of enquiry.”

Take that as one painter’s memory rather than as market history, because the record is less dramatic than the fear. The art historian Emerson Dionísio told Correio Braziliense in 2021 that figurative painting “never stopped existing” and, though it met discrimination in many markets, “never stopped selling and winning over the public.”

The one hard number available is older than it looks. The Brazilian art market grew 21% in 2023 against 2022, according to the country’s contemporary art association, and no comparable reading has been published since.

For a collector in Rio the practical reading is this. A studio group with no gallery machinery behind it can put nine figurative painters into a large public exhibition hall, which is a cheaper route to visibility than a commercial gallery.

03What is on the walls

Drawings and oil paintings, figurative throughout. The subjects are domestic and Brazilian rather than grand.

Ayla de Oliveira shows Oferenda para Oxum na cachoeirinha, an offering to Oxum — the Yoruba orixá of rivers and fresh water, brought to Brazil by enslaved West Africans and venerated here in Candomblé and, later, in Umbanda — at a small waterfall. Maria Victória Santos shows Feira, a street market.

Nelson Macedo, the teacher the whole thing grew from, shows Lavadeira, a washerwoman. The full list of the nine painters is on the Correios cultural centre’s own listing.

The title, Inefável Presença, points at what a picture holds that a caption cannot. It translates roughly as “ineffable presence”.

04The building nearly went dark this year

There is a second story here that the exhibition’s publicity does not mention, and it matters more to this newspaper’s readers than the paintings do.

In late June, Correios — the Brazilian post office — suspended its entire forward exhibition calendar in Rio. Artists, curators and production teams were notified the previous week; there was no public announcement.

Correios gave the reason as resource optimisation. The timing followed a first-quarter loss of R$3.1 billion, about US$600 million, which was 82% worse than the same quarter of 2025.

The company closed 2025 with a full-year loss of R$8.5 billion and negative net equity. Shows already installed were allowed to run to 4 July; after that, nothing, with no date given for a restart.

Separately, the government auctioned the old Correios headquarters at Rua Primeiro de Março 64 on 30 July, opening at R$47.8 million. That is a different building from the cultural centre, which stands around the corner and was not part of the sale.

No public statement reversing the suspension has appeared. What has appeared is programming: six exhibitions now run at the Rio centre through August and October, and three of them, including this one, opened together in the same week.

So the calendar is running again. A visitor should still treat the opening hours as worth a telephone call, because a venue that cancelled a season by internal memo can do it again the same way.

05Worth the trip?

Yes, with one adjustment. Go on a weekday afternoon, because the centre closes Sunday and Monday, and combine it.

This is one of three shows that opened together that week, and one of six running now. The building itself, an eclectic 1922 building on Rua Visconde de Itaboraí, is worth the walk from Praça XV on its own.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost?

Nothing. Entry to the Centro Cultural dos Correios is free and there is no age restriction.

When is it open?

Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 7pm, until 10 October 2026. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays, so do not plan a weekend afternoon around it.

Is the work for sale?

The Correios cultural centre is a public exhibition space rather than a commercial gallery, and no prices have been published. Ask at the desk if you want to buy.

What does the title mean?

Inefável Presença translates roughly as “ineffable presence”. The word inefável describes something that cannot be put fully into words.

Can I get in with a wheelchair?

The press material lists ramps and a lift, and the venue describes itself as adapted for wheelchair users. Telephone ahead if step-free access decides your trip.

Sources

• Correios, official cultural centre listing and press release of 13 August 2026 — artists, curator, dates, hours, entry, medium, the studio’s history and the curator’s quotation
• Diário do Rio and Tribuna do Sertão, 24–26 June 2026 — suspension of the Rio exhibition calendar and the first-quarter loss
• Diário do Rio — sale of the historic Correios headquarters in central Rio
• Ayla de Oliveira, artist site, and SP-Arte — date of birth, gallery representation and previous exhibitions
• Correio Braziliense — art historian Emerson Dionísio on the standing of figurative painting in Brazil
• The Rio Times, March 2025 — 21% growth in the Brazilian art market in 2023 against 2022, sourced to the Brazilian contemporary art association
• InfoMoney, CNN Brasil and Telesíntese — the R$3.1 billion first-quarter loss and the R$8.5 billion full-year 2025 loss
• Rio Memórias and Correios — the 1922 inauguration and eclectic architecture of the Visconde de Itaboraí building

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