Tilsitt Gallery presents Cartographies of Affection, an exhibition by Brazilian artist Ritchelly Oliveira (b. 1993, Goiás), who currently lives in Portugal. Known for the emotional depth of his portraits and for the way the pictorial gesture intertwines with the human gesture, Oliveira brings together in this exhibition a body of work that expands his visual vocabulary.
Departing from the human figure, the artist explores physical, emotional, and existential fragility as a creative territory. The bodies inhabiting his canvases do not embody ideals, but vulnerability — that which bends, waits, or finds support in another. Between restrained gestures and intense chromatic fields, Oliveira builds silent images that invite contemplation and deep listening.
Affection, understood not as a romantic ideal but as a force that shapes and transforms human relationships, is the central axis of his practice. In Cartographies of Affection, Oliveira transforms memory, trauma, and vulnerability into poetic matter, making art a space for healing and confrontation.
The symbolic presence of birds, a constant in his iconography, does not evoke freedom but fragility, they hover over the bodies as reminders of the emotional wounds that never cease to land.