“The Living Forest”: visit UÝRA’s first solo show in the US

Works in the PIPA Institute Collection

(Manchester, USA)

Opening on May 11, the Currier Museum of Art presents The Living Forest: UÝRA (A Floresta Viva: UÝRA), the artist’s first solo exhibition in a US institution. The show features a comprehensive selection of photographs and videos encompassing UÝRA’s entire artistic trajectory, with work from many of their past performances and recent appearances.

UÝRA, a trans-Indigenous artist from Manaus and one of PIPA 2022’s Awarded Artists, utilizes performance art and ancestral rituals to teach biodiversity, Indigenous rights, and environmental resistance to the local youth in the Amazon. In their work, which confronts structural racism and transphobia in Brazil as well as globally, UÝRA uses organic elements (such as foliage, bark, fibers, plumage, and natural dyes) to create elaborate costumes that blur conventional separations between humans, animals, and plants. The hybrid creatures thus created freely move and operate between the forest and the city, ultimately commenting on the impact of anthropocentrism and industrialization.

Visit the Currier for opening day and a performance by the artist UÝRA at 7 pm in the main lobby. This is one of only two live performances by the artist. The second performance will be held at the Currier’s free Summer Block Party on Saturday, July 15.

Some of the works presented in the exhibition are also part of the PIPA Institute’s collection. You can see all of UÝRA’s works that are in the collection here.