Rodrigo Braga (Manaus, AM, Brazil, 1976) lives and works between Paris and Rio de Janeiro. Raised in Recife, he holds a degree in Fine Arts from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE, 2002). His practice spans photography, video, painting, installation and performative actions, and examines the relationships between body, matter and landscape, as well as the fusion of the human and the non-human within a shared universe.
The artist undertakes performative actions in natural landscapes, using his own body to intervene in the environment or merge with it. Coming from a family of biologists and environmentalists, he investigates the conflicted relationship between human beings and the environment, with a focus on concepts such as mimesis and biomimesis. Braga describes himself as a "farmer-photographer," in contrast to hunter-photographers: his photographs are preceded by drawings, and he does not use digital post-production. He often spends weeks, sometimes months, immersed in the forest to make his images.
Beginning in 2018, the artist’s palette shifted toward darker hues, incorporating charcoal, dried vegetation, fire and blood. Braga associates this chromatic shift with Brazil’s political and environmental context at the time. His works investigate the symbolic layers of elements such as eggs, eyes, seeds, branches, stones and earth, which emerge as unstable signs.
He has received the Prix SAM Art Projects at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2015), the Prêmio MASP Artista Emergente (São Paulo, 2013), the Prêmio PIPA Voto Popular at MAM-RJ (2012), the Prêmio Funarte Marc Ferrez de Fotografia (2010) and the Prêmio Marcantonio Vilaça from Funarte/MinC (2009), as well as nominations for the Prix Pictet (2012, 2017) and the Paul Huf Award (2010, 2012).
His solo exhibitions include Um presente para o futuro at Zipper Galeria (São Paulo, 2026); Ponto Zero at Zipper Galeria (2022); Feu noir / Fogo preto at Galeria Le Salon H (Paris, 2024); Nullpunkt, MQ Freiraum at the MuseumsQuartier (Vienna, Austria, 2024); Mer Intérieure at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2016), among others. He also developed the project Agricultura da Imagem, which has been presented at venues including SESC Belenzinho (São Paulo, 2014), the Museu Arqueológico Municipal José Monteiro (Portugal, 2019), the Museu do Estado de Pernambuco (Recife, 2018), Galeria BNDES (Rio de Janeiro, 2016) and the Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Ceará (Fortaleza, 2015).
His group exhibitions include Coexistência: Frans Krajcberg, Sebastião Salgado e Rodrigo Braga at the Jardin d'Agronomie Tropicale (Paris, 2025); A Hypothetical Show for a Closed Museum at M Woods (Beijing, 2020); The Main Complaint at ZEITZ MOCAA (Cape Town, 2018); Past/Future/Present: Contemporary Brazilian Art from MAM-SP at the Wexner Center for the Arts (Ohio, 2017); Mythologies at the Shiseido Gallery (Tokyo, 2012); Eloge du Vertige at the MEP (Paris, 2012); Soft Power. Arte Brasil at Kunsthal KAdE (Amersfoort, 2016); and Visions of Nature at the Kunst Haus Wien (Vienna, 2017). He has also participated in the 30ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2012), the Jogja Biennale XIV (Indonesia, 2017), the I Bienal MASP/Pirelli de Fotografia (2014) and the 16ª Bienal de Cerveira (Portugal, 2011 and 2024).
He has been an artist in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris, 2011), Residency Unlimited / Dead Horse Bay (New York, 2013) and the Flanders Fields Museum (Ypres, Belgium, 2010).
His publications include Ponto Zero (Fotô Editorial, 2025), Agricultura da Imagem (SESC, 2014), Ciclos Alterados (Tomie Ohtake, 2012) and Desejo Eremita (2010).
His works are held in collections including the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), the Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand / MAM-RJ, MAM-SP, MAR, MAMAM (Recife), Banco Itaú and the Coleção PIPA.