BIO — LEO DE PAULA

Leo de Paula (b. 1998) is a Brazilian artist born and raised in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, and now based in Newark, New Jersey. His first contact with the arts was through theater, which he began at the age of eleven. Shortly after finishing high school, he shifted his focus to the visual arts, beginning with photography and eventually expanding into painting, sculpture, and mixed-media installations. He is currently pursuing his BFA
at Rutgers University, graduating in May 2026. After completing his degree, de Paula intends to deepen his practice through an MFA program or an artist residency.

Across his body of work, de Paula investigates questions of identity formation and the lived experiences of first-generation immigrants in the 21st century. His practice also engages themes of displacement, examining how narratives of belonging shape his understanding of existence as an Afro-Latino in the United States. De Paula consistently returns to the process of reconstructing and redefining identity as a way to pursue a decolonial mode of being. Through storytelling, his work becomes both an act of resistance against erasure and a space for imagining new forms of cultural connection and belonging within contemporary social landscapes.