The exhibition “All the Colors” by artist Toz Viana arrives at the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum, presenting 24 unpublished artworks inspired by the character “The Joy Vendor”.

 

Toz was born in Salvador and moved to Rio de Janeiro as a teenager, where he began creating his first characters, influenced by cartoonists like Angeli and Laerte, Andy Warhol’s Pop Art, and the Hip Hop movement. From there, his drawings came to life through urban art, filling previously gray and empty spaces with colors, and establishing graffiti as a fundamental part of his artistic production.

 

The central character of the exhibition, “The Joy Vendor”, was inspired by the street vendors who roam the beaches of Brazil with colorful balls. The choice to represent this character reveals the intention to symbolize ideas of nature and leisure. In Toz’s playful interpretation, a multicolored body is connected to a head composed of balls of various colors and sizes, wrapped in a net, which, organized in this way, give him the power of movement: the ability to float through his dreamlike habitat, defying gravity. Here, he is no longer alone, but rather united with his peers, holding hands, infinitely multiplying in space and time — a way to resonate the plurality and equality that Toz seeks to evoke in his research and in this exhibition.

 

The artworks also go beyond the figurative representation of “The Joy Vendor” and explore geometry and abstraction through its elements, such as circles, limbs, and the spatial environment in which he is placed: the sky. Color, shape, space, and depth give rhythm to the exhibition, from the museum’s entrance courtyard to this circular room, where a soundtrack enhances the visitor’s sensory experience. It is an invitation to imagine new perspectives on the character’s micro and macrocosms and to enter his universe.

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Cammila Ferreira

curator