Catu/BA, 1993

Daughter of the mysterious bowels of mother Bahia, Ventura Profana prophesies multiplication and abundance in black, indigenous and travesti life. Doctrinated in Baptist temples, she is a missionary pastor, singer, writer, composer and visual artist, which practice is rooted in the research of the implications and methodologies of evangelization in Brazil and beyond, through the spread of neo-pentecostal churches. Praises, like the sting of a dagger licked with wax and rust in Pharisees' hearts.

In 2019, her show Cântico dos Cânticos received the Leda Maria Martins Award for Black Performing Arts as the Best Show of that year.  In 2020, she released Traquejos Pentecostais para Matar o Senhor, her debut EP with the musical partnership of Podeserdesligado; in 2021, she was one of the artists honored at the Pipa Contemporary Arts Award and received the Natural Musical award for the production of Tentaremos Não Nos Esquecer, a visual album that will be released in 2024.

She has been on the cover of photography magazines Zum and Foam and is guest editor of Argentinian magazine Balam. She was named one of the hundred most important living collagists in the world by Phaidon. She is a collaborator with Guerreiro do Divino in the Swiss Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale and was a guest artist at the 35th São Paulo Biennale. 

In recent years, she has realised actions and had works exhibited in spaces such as Centro Cultural São Paulo (SP/BR), Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève (SWI), IMS- Instituto Moreira Salles (SP/BR), Serpentine Gallery (UK), Werkstatt Der Kulturen Berlin (Germany), Tenthaus (NO), Museu de Arte da Pampulha (MG), Frestas Trienal de Arte (SP/BR), Pivô (SP/BR), Goethe Institut (GE) and MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo (SP).

2025

  • Installation How deep is the Ocean at the exhibition Everything Is So Alive, curated by Nora Swantje Almes and Silja Leifsdottir. 

  • Ancestral Futures at Les Rencontres d'Arles, curated by Thyago Nogueira.

  • Cover of the book Body Politics: On Transbrazilian by King Kong Magazine. 

  • Cut Out: A Feminist History of Photo Collage, Montage and Assemblage by Fiona Rogers.

  • Installation Todo Cuidado é Pouco at the exhibition What sinks still sings, curated by Vanessa Cimorelli, at the Salts gallery in Basel. 

  • Participated in the La Becque residency programme in Vevey, Switzerland. 

  • Exhibition Ancestral Futures — Brazilian Contemporary Scene, Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre, China.  

  • Released the film and album Todo Cuidado é Pouco. Considered one of the fifty best Brazilian albums of 2025 so far, by Billboard magazine. 

2024

  • Musical direction and performance for the project O Talismã, by Guerreiro do Divino Amor, at the Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

  • Atlântico Negro curated by Marcelo Campos and the Luiz Gama Institute, at the Permanent Forum on Afro-descendants of the United Nations-Geneva.

  • How Deep is the Ocean in the MASP Video Room, curated by David Ribeiro and Adriano Pedrosa

  • Editor of the La Bohemia 10th edition of the photography magazine Balam. 

  • Artist honored at the Read My World International Literature Festival in Amsterdam, Netherlands. 

  • Artist selected for the Zum Photography Grant, from the Moreira Salles Institute. 

2023

  • Exhibition Esfíngico Frontal curated by Germano Dushá at Mendes Wood DM Gallery;

  • Exhibition Em tempos como estes, curated by Érica Burini, at the Marília Razuk Gallery;

  • Exhibition Dos Brasis: Art and Black Thought curated by Igor Simões, Lorraine Mendes and Marcelo Campos, at Sesc Belenzinho;

  • Exhibition No fim da Madrugada, curated by Lisette Lagnado, at Vermelho Gallery;

  • Screening of Procure Vir Antes do Inverno at the sixteenth edition of the Encontro de Cinema Negro Zózimo Bulbul Festival - Brazil, Africa, the Caribbean and other diasporas;

  • Acquisition of Concílio das Lamentações from the Pinacoteca de São Paulo collection.

  • Collaboration with Gabriel Massan in Third World: The Bottom Dimension, in Serpentine UK. Curated by Tamar Clarke-Brown;

  • Invited to VITAMIN C+, Collage in Contemporary Art from Phaidon.

  • Exhibition of Eu Não Vou Morrer and Resplandescente at the Audiovisual Exhibition Death is not the end, is singing in the village of the living, curated by Danie Valencia Sepúlveda and Karkará Tunga, at La Cueva, Mexico;

  • It's as if I have all the strength of a prayer, not to cry, article commissioned by the Icelandic magazine DUNCE III;

  • Cover of FOAM Magazine's #64 The Environmental Issue - Extremes with The Square Root of Seven series;

  • Mentorship for Movimento Cidade, Show of creativity and urban sustainability in Espírito Santo;

  • Mais que Abundante, musical performance at Noite das Estrelas, in the favela of Nova Holanda, curator by Entidade Maré;

  • 35th São Paulo Biennial curated by Diane Lima, Grada Kilimanjaro, Hélio Menezes and Manuel Borja-Villel.


2022

  • The Theology of Transmutation, article commissioned by Gender It Magazine, curated by Xonorika Kira.

  • Exhibition Um defeito de cor - Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR/RJ) - curated by Amanda Bonan,  Marcelo Campos and Ana Maria Gonçalves;

  • Exhibition Histórias Brasileiras - Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP/SP) - curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Lilia Schwarcz, Amanda Carneiro, Ana Mesquita,

    Clarissa Diniz, Sandra Benites, Fernando Oliva, Glaucea Helena, Guilherme Giufrida, Isar Jeille and Tomas Toledo;

  • Tutorship for the project Travesticena - Escola Iracema Porto das Artes (Fortaleza/Ceará);

  • Exhibition Negros da Piscina - Pinacoteca do Estado do Ceará - curated by Moacir dos Anjos and Fabiana Moraes;

  • Exhibition Brazil, Body and Democracy - Ilian Rebei Gallery, Paris/France - curated by Ulisses Carrilho;

  • Performance There is no end to what a living world will demand of you, with Jota Mombaça, Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro and Musa Michelle Mattiuzzi - Theatre de L'Usine (Genebra/Switzerland);

  • Featured in the performance What is coming for you is only dawn, by Jota Mombaça on IASPIS, Stockholm/Sweden - curated by Valerio Del Baglivo;

  • Exhibition Chrysalis -  Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (Genebra/Switzerland) - curated by Andrea Bellini;

  • Research in progress for the still untitled visual album sponsored by Natura Musical