Navegante Tremembé is an Indigenous artist from the Varjota village in the interior of Ceará, Brazil. For over four decades, she has developed her paintings using toá, an ancestral Indigenous technique based on natural pigments gathered from her original territory. Toá is a colored earth formed from geological layers that date back billions of years. The chromatic and material qualities of her work carry ancient memories of the planet—archaeological remnants from a time preceding humanity’s predatory existence. In this sense, her paintings function as true archives of the earth, preserving forms of knowledge and mystery that offer vital perspectives for addressing the climate crisis and broader environmental challenges. 

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Today, Navegante’s ancestral land is under dispute by monoculture enterprises and organized economic interests. This ongoing conflict has led to the destruction of native vegetation and the disappearance of local birdlife and fauna. Through her paintings of trees and birds, Navegante articulates a powerful form of resistance—denouncing the colonial and extractivist logics imposed upon nature. Her practice is inherently political: it records, safeguards, and eternalizes what is at risk of vanishing. 

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Her compositions weave together personal experience, Tremembé cosmology, memory, and imagination, resulting in dreamlike visual narratives characterized by synthetic figuration, spatial economy, and an Indigenous geometric sensibility. These ancestral landscapes stand as enduring reminders of the intrinsic interconnectedness of all life within nature. 

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Lucas Dilacerda
Curator, AICA – International Association of Art Critics