Menelaw Sete

Menelaw Sete’s studio and gallery is in Pelourinho, the historic centre of his native Salvador, Bahia, where he has been painting professionally for some 10 years. His paintings and involvement in the local art scene have made him wealthy and a local and international celebrity. His inspiration comes from daily life in the street around him. The Italian art critic Tanino Bonifacio described his work as a “great and fascinating encyclopaedia of South American symbolism”.  His work has been exhibited widely in Brazil, the USA, the UK and Europe

Menelaw is energetic and extrovert and his paintings show his immense vitality. 

During exhibitions of his innovative and distinctive art in the United States in 1999 he was dubbed ‘Brazil’s Picasso’, a label that he found precocious but which has been adopted everywhere at home and abroad. Prof. Aldo Tripoldi, art critic and historian of the University of Salvador has said of this, “More than just a name, Menelaw creates a genuinely Brazilian art, a mixture of races and colours”, and prefers to call him “the Pelé of painting”.  Referring to the linking of Menelaw’s paintings to cubism and neo-impressionism, Prof. Tripoldi says “we can start with these schools but it is not enough for a deeper reading of his work. One can detect an Afro-Brazilian culture, a colouring similar to a tropical taste, and figurative elements he chooses to compose his symphony that belongs to his world and to the things around him”

International exhibitions

1997   Galeria S.E.U.I. (Latin America House), Brussels

1997   Galeria les Lilàs, Wilden, Germany

1997   Galeria Ka-ES Im Okohaus, Frankfurt, Germany

1997   Kultugalerie Dês Stardt, Saarrbrucken, Germany

1998   Open Art. Gallery Grobedhem, Munich, Germany

1998   Casa do Brasil, Madrid, Spain

1998   Ass. Cultural “El Cortile”, Sciacca, Sicily, Italy

1999   Galeria Royale, New Orleans, USA

1999   Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

1999   Beverley Libby Gallery, Atlanta, Ga, USA

1999   Ritz Carlton Hotel, Atlanta, Ga, USA

1999   The Southern Center for International Studies, Atlanta, Ga, USA

2000   Gallery T Elgee 113 South Street, Philadelphia, USA

2000   Fundação Sagres e Fundação Algarve, Portugal

2002   Brazurich - Teatro de Zurich, Switzerland

2002   Mostra de Arte, Stresa, Itlay

2002  Comune di SciaccaSicily,Italy

2002   Max Galerie, Nice, France

2003   Centro Espositivo, Cecina, Italy

2003   Museo Civico, Sciacca, Sicily, Italy

2005 Latin America Exhibition, London

2005/2006 Art Ireland, Dublin

2006 Puro Arte, Vigo, Spain