Baptism — the title of this series by Gleeson Paulino abounds with meaning. From the Christian upbringing of the artist, baptism is the sacrament that marks a death and a rebirth. The christian abdicates his present self in the name of a new one, governed by a new belief system, an entirely new metaphysics. It is, for the religious, a transmutation; the individual anointed with water is no longer the same. In secular language, baptising can indicate the beginning of an endeavour, an inauguration, or designate the act of naming — and thus identifying.
Baptism is not only the inauguration of a career, as per the secular use of the word. If, on the one hand Baptism is Paulino’s first solo exhibition, on the other, the series also forges transmutations: daily life becomes a mythical universe, nature an almost supernatural space and entity of communion, a leaf that floats marked by pigment of Urucum becomes a vestige of the sublime, the moral demands of the past are transfigured into tribute to experience. And the central transmutation: through rediscovery of his origins, the artist’s gentle gaze reinvents a story that challenged him, and redefines his religare experience.
This book and exhibition thus reveals new forms of deep connection, of complex reconnection: using the photographer’s technique, the series revisits with rich subtlety the culture that produced the artist. The magic mirror that he holds up to the past reflects a present in which the spiritual dimension of the world is visible, which is also the dimension of art.
First exhibited in 2022 at Espaço Alto, in São Paulo, Baptism is the result of an organic process of production and maturation of a visuality that, although nascent, already has received positive response with exhibitions and prestigious awards in Italy, Slovenia, Holland, and France. The series was also selected by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to open its 2023 cultural program in London.
Marcio Junji Sono
Editorial Consultant