UÝRA (b. 1991, Santarém, Brazil) is a trans-Indigenous artist from Manaus who utilizes performance art and ancestral rituals to teach biodiversity, Indigenous rights, and environmental resistance to the local youth in the Amazons and confront structural racism and transphobia in Brazil and globally.
The Living Forest: UÝRA (A Floresta Viva: UÝRA) is their first solo exhibition in a US institution. The exhibition features a comprehensive selection of photographs and videos encompassing UÝRA’s entire artistic trajectory, with work from many of their past performances and recent appearances.
In their work, UÝRA uses organic elements (such as foliage, bark, fibers, plumage, and natural dyes) to create elaborate costumes that blur conventional separations between humans, animals, and plants. The hybrid creatures thus created freely move and operate between the forest and the city, ultimately commenting on the impact of anthropocentrism and industrialization.
