people

Danilo Baraúna (born 1988 in Belém, Amazon, Brazil) is the Principal Investigator and Curator of  Amazônia EcoQueer. He is currently a British Academy International Fellow at Newcastle University (UK). Danilo holds a PhD in Fine Art from the Glasgow School of Art, fully funded by the CAPES Foundation – Brazilian Ministry of Education. His interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of queer studies (affective, ecological and decolonial approaches) and the theory and criticism of artists’ moving image. His current research focuses on LGBTQIAPN+ art and cultural production in the Brazilian Amazon region. Danilo was awarded the 'Art in School Prize' in 2015 and was nominated as a national finalist for the Study UK Alumni Awards (British Council) in Brazil (2025).

Giuliana Borea is a Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies at Newcastle University and an Affiliated Lecturer in Anthropology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Her career is built at the intersection of research, teaching, cultural policy-making and curatorship. Her research concerns the political economy of contemporary art; museum politics and practices; issues of placemaking and sensory knowledge with a particular focus on Peru and the Amazon. She is the Director of the Amazonart project, which was recipient of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship. She has been Peru’s Director of Museums and Cultural Heritage and Coordinator of the Lima Contemporary Art Museum. She sits at the EASA's Art and Anthropology Network Committee.

Akha Rubi Kaeté (born 1992 in Capanema, Brazil) lives and works in Belém and the surrounding Amazonian countryside. They are a non-binary, multidisciplinary artist working across painting, performance, fashion design, moving image and architecture. Their work explores and challenges binaries such as the sacred and profane, rural and urban, through the mobilisation of spirituality, activism and cosmopolitics. They hold a BA in Architecture from the University of the Amazon and also attended the university of Teatro Oficina (SP). In 2022, they founded the fashion brand Akha Art, merging fine art practice and wearable pieces that serve as extensions of a body-territory. Their short film, 'The Return to Patú-Anú' (2024), combines politics and Amazonian cosmovision.

Allyster Fagundes is a visual artist from the Brazilian state of Pará, in the Amazon region. He is currently a PhD student and holds an MPhil from the Federal University of Pará, and a BA in Journalism from the Faculdade Estácio do Pará. He is a photographer, art director and filmmaker. His artistic practice encompasses the moving image, sculptures, drag performances and stage costumes for opera, theatre, dance and film productions. Since 2016, he has been researching drag art in Belém do Pará, with a focus on the NoiteSuja collective and the intersection of performance and visual arts. Notable exhibitions include his solo show titled ‘Revérbero’, held at the Theodoro Braga Gallery in Belém, which was made posible by the Branco de Melo Grant.

Breno Filo is a visual artist, designer, art teacher and researcher from Belém do Pará. He is currently a PhD student at the Federal University of Pará (PPGARTES-UFPA) and holds a Master's degree and a BA in Visual Arts with a teaching qualification, both from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA). He is an art teacher at the Primary and Secondary School of the UFPA and is member of research groups including Mundyca – Network Lab, MultiTão and the Lampere Project, and the Network of Scientific Dissemination and Climate Change (DCMC). His artistic process currently involves queer multispecies fabulations, informed by dreams, wandering and the concept of exile. He uses drawing and art writing as poetic gestures in this process.

Danielle Fonseca has been nominated for the 2016 PIPA Prize. A visual artist and writer, her creative practice is informed by elements from literature, poetry, philosophy, music, and landscape. In 2022, she directed the film ‘A Sky Split in Half’ (16’33) for the exhibition ‘Raio-queo-parta: modern fictions in Brasil' (SESC 24 de Maio/SP). The film was selected for the official competition at festivals including Amazônia FiDoc 2022, the Vitória Film Festival, and the Muqui Film and TV Festival, where it was awarded a prize in the  National TV category.  In 2025, she pubished her second book, titled DISCO-POEMA. Her artworks are included in the collections of the Museum Casa das Onze Janelas and the Rio Museum of Art – MAR, among others.

Hosana Celeste is an artist, researcher and designer. She is a Lecturer at the Federal University of Pará, where she teaches on the BA in Visual Arts programme and supervises MPhil and PhD students. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Federal University of Santa Maria, and she holds a PhD in Arts from São Paulo State University. She has also conducted research at Aalto University in Finland, and has worked as a visiting artist and a teaching and research assistant at the Köln International School of Design and the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, both in Germany. Her transdisciplinary practice and research involve art, design, and neuroscience. She is the Director of Internationalisation at PPGARTES-UFPA and research leader of ColaresLAB.

Imogen Hayes is a third-year Fine Art undergraduate at Newcastle University, having achieved a distinction in her Foundation Diploma at Kingston School of Art. She is funded by a Vacation Research Scholarship at Newcastle University, where she is analysing, transcribing and translating artists’ interviews, and contributing to the queer oral history stream of the research. Imogen has a multidisciplinary artistic practice and is currently interested in installation art, moving image, and print, whilst combining art history with a focus on contemporary, feminist, and modern privacy theories. She intends to pursue postgraduate studies in art history, while continuing to learn new languages and maintain her fluency in Spanish. 

Juliano Bentes is an artist, lecturer, researcher and cultural producer based in Belém. He holds a PhD in Arts from the Federal University of Pará and is  the founder and coordinator of the 'Transvestigêneres Studies' Work Group at the Brazilian Association of Research in Performing Arts (ABRACE). Juliano is also a member of the Themônias Cultural Movement, and works across performance, visual arts, research and cultural production. His artworks explore the connections between body, transgender identity, memory, climate action, the city and the Amazonian territory. Juliano also works on educational and collective projects, publications, and cultural initiatives that engage with discussions about genders and sexualities and the changing ways of living and imagining the Amazon.  

Keila-Sankofa is a visual artist and filmmaker who works with moving image installations, performances, photographs and films. Her artistic practice and research explore memory through fabulation and speculation, and her work has been exhibited in art galleries, at film festivals, and in urban spaces.  She has been nominated for the PIPA Prize (2021, 2023 and 2024), and was an artist-in-residence on the 'The African Diaspora There and Here' project at the University of Stanford and Instituto Sacatar. She is the director of the project ‘The Right to Memory’, and her artworks are held in the collections of the Federal University of Pará and the National Museum of Fine Arts in Brazil. Keila-Sankofa is also a member of the Association of Brazilian Black Filmmakers.

Keyla Sobral is a visual artist and writer. She holds a PhD and a Master's degree in Arts from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), and is currently the Assistant Curator of the UFPA Amazoniana Art Collection. She has curated exhibitions such as 'Arte Pará 2019' and 'Tropical Delusion' (2024–25). Her artwork has been showcased in exhibitions in Brazil and internationally, including at the 1º Bienal das Amazônias, Festival ON/OFF - France (2023), and the Programa Pivô Satélite, Bel-SP, 2023. Her artwork is included in the collections of the Casa da Cultura da América Latina, the Rio Grande do Sul Museum of Art, and the Casa das Onze Janelas Museum, and has won several awards. Keyla is also the author of the poetry book ‘Nunca falei tão sério’ (2023).

Mauricio holds a BA in Visual Arts from the Federal University of Pará and he is currently a PhD student at the State University of Santa Catarina. His artistic practice spans photography, performance, writing, painting, installation art and the moving image. She discusses issues around race, gender, sexuality and daily life in the Amazon from a decolonial perspective. Her current research focuses on Afro-indigenous spirituality in the Amazon. Throughout his career, Mauricio has won several awards, including the prestigious XVI Funarte Marc Ferrez Photography Prize. He has also been an artist in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and showcased his work in impactful brazilian exhibitions such as 'Dos Brasis' and 'Crossroads of Afro-Brazilian Art'. 

Matheus Aguiar (born inCapitão Poço, Pará, Brazil) is an artist whose work includes drawings, comic books, graphic novels, performances and the moving image. Since 2010, he has published idependent books such as Kamikaze 1 and 2 (Anthologies of Comics), Hasta La Vista, Breves Anatomias, Bola de Pelos and Bicho Solto. The book 'Bola de Pelos' was a finalist for the MIX Award for Literature, one of the most prestigious prizes in the field. He is the director of the the film Igarapé das Almas (2023). In 2013, he founded ‘NoiteSuja’, an LGBTQIAPN+ collective in the Brazilian Amazon that promotes parties as a space of queer and trans empowerement. He holds a BA in Visual Arts and is currently studying for an MPhil in Arts at the Federal University of Pará.

Nay Jinknss is a Black, lesbian artist, researcher and social educator who was born and raised in Ananindeua, Pará, Brazil. She has a BA in Visual Arts from the University of the Amazon and she is currently a PhD student in Creative Practices at the Federal University of Pará. Through her art and research, she aims to develop a counter-colonial poetic by investigating iconographic imagery in Brazil and the Amazon region, aiming to foster a more diverse and inclusive society. She is also a member of the 'Sapato Preto Amazônida' collective, and won the fourth season of the 'Art in Photography' competition, which was broadcast on the Arte1 television channel. She is also a member of ColaresLAB.

Paola Maués (born 1989) spent her childhood and adolescence in Castanhal (Brasil), and currently lives in Belém do Pará. She is a museum professional who works at the public Art Gallery of the Universidade Federal do Pará | Federal University of Pará (UFPA) in Belém, where she  manages the Amazoniana Collection of Art. Paola is currently a PhD student at UFPA, researching the intersections of gender studies and art collections, with a particular focus on queer ecologies. She holds a Master’s degree in Museum Studies from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, and a BA with Teaching Qualification in Visual Arts from  the University of the Amazon (UNAMA).

Pedro Doétiro Tukano is from São Gabriel da Cachoeira. He is a media activist and photographer for the Centre of Indigenous Popular Medicine Bahserikowi and for COIAB (the Directory of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon). As a journalist, Pedro is also involved in socio-environmental activism, working as a photographer and social media coordinator. He is an Indigenous person from the Yepá-Mahsã community, also known as the Tukano People, and prioritises discussing issues related to Indigenous peoples through anti-colonial journalism. He is the director of the Miriã Mahsã collective of LGBTQIA+ Indigenous peoples in the Brazilian state of  Amazonas.

Rafa Bqueer holds a BA in Visual Arts from the Federal University of Pará and has also studied at the Parque Lage School of Visual Arts. She is a multidisciplinary travesti artist and performer who works across carnival culture and is a pioneer of the ‘Themônias’ drag movement. She has won several awards and exhibited her work in Brazil, the USA, Portugal and the UK. Through the use of camp and irony, her artistic research explores issues around gender, race, LGBTQIAPN+ activism and the Amazon. Her work is held in the collections of institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, the National Museum of Fine Arts and the Pinacoteca in São Paulo. Photo by Rafa Lilli.

Ramon Reis is an Anthropologist who holds degrees from the  Universidade de São Paulo and the Federal University of Pará. He lives and works in Belém (Brasil). His artworks have been showcased in exhibitions such as: 40º Arte Pará, Pivô Satélite Programme, 6º Film Festival ‘Curta Caicó’ (Portugal, 2023), IX International Festival Curta Caicó, 1º ‘Açaí’ Film Festival (Belém, 2023) and the VI SESC Film Festival (Belém, 2024). Through his works, Ramon explores the body as an aesthetic and political medium to, developing reflections about binaries such as life-death, nature-culture and health-disease. He is currently a Lecturer in Anthropology at the Universidade do Estado do Pará.

Rafaela Moreira holds a Master's degree and a BA in Visual Arts from the Federal University of Pará. Also known as Rafael Matheus Moreira (the name she uses for her artwork), Rafaela Moreira lives in Ananindeua (Pará, Brazil). Her work features icons from the history of art alongside representations of trans women's bodies and identities. Her practice aims to create a supportive  environment in which trans women can exist beyond marginalisation. She is an award-winning artist who she has received prizes from the ‘41º Salão Arte Pará’ and the ‘Rumos’ Itaú Cultural. Her artworks are held in the collections of institutions such as the São Paulo Museum of Art and the Amazoniana Collection of Art.

Rafaela Correia is a travesti, photographer, filmmaker and cultural producer from the Brazilian Amazon. As a member of the 'Somar' collective in Porto Velho (Rondônia, Brazil), she develops cultural and audiovisual projects dedicated to the LGBTQIAPN+ community and the Amazon region. She has directed the short films 'Caipora' and 'Rainhas do Madeira', and founded the ‘Festival das Bee’ and the ‘Orgulho com Local’ projects. Rafaela holds a BA in Theatre from the Federal University of Rondônia (UNIR) and she creates narratives that empower dissident bodies, territories, and the Amazonian culture through her artistic practice.