Val Souza (1985) is an artist and researcher. Her artistic practice is based on iconographic research on the historical representation of Black women. Through the production of self-images, her work contrasts Brazilian social imagery with notions of abundance and joy. A PhD candidate in Visual Arts at UNESP, she holds a Master’s degree in Dance from UFBA and a degree in Education from Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. She has participated in several national and international exhibitions and festivals. In 2020, she received the Bolsa de Fotografia ZUM/IMS. She is currently a resident at the Cité internationale des arts in France.

In ESTUDO DA FORMA Nº 1 (2024), Val Souza explores the celebration, playfulness, and beauty associated, in the context of the peripheries, with the acts of bleaching and braiding hair, as well as the universe of barbershops and beauty salons. In these spaces of self-care and self-affirmation for Black people, such practices are established as common goods, creating moments of togetherness and mutual care among Black women. Through this work —the artist’s final project for the Bolsa Pampulha residency—Val Souza closely examines the ways in which intimacy creates emotional spaces inhabited by Black people.