Emerson Rocha
Bio +
Emerson Rocha, known as Saturno, is a contemporary visual artist, curator, and art critic. His work highlights the experiences and everyday life of the Black community, employing a characteristic palette of deep blue, gold, and white. Classical elements of life and the contemporary style of peripheral youth intertwine with ancestral representations of African culture.
Saturno reinterprets symbols of Western art, bringing Black protagonism to works inspired by abstract icons. His profound blue, combined with a vibrant and symbolically rich aesthetic, explores themes such as ancestry, love, and faith, offering a new perspective on traditional art. This singular shade of blue — created through the fusion of acrylic paint and African indigo —, in dialogue with gold and white, defines his aesthetic signature, making his work unmistakable.
His creations have been exhibited at Instituto Inhotim, in Minas Gerais, at the Museum of Art of Rio, and at the National Museum of Afro-Brazilian Culture, in Bahia. He also participated in the launch of the Bob Marley biopic, creating an exclusive artwork for Paramount Pictures, and had his pieces incorporated into the stage design of Gilberto Gil’s last tour.
For Saturno, each painting is a mirror: a gesture of beauty and truth that reveals not only his own life but also the strength and poetry of a collective heritage.
