Exhibition Research Assistant (January - March 2026)

The Walker Art Center seeks a temporary Exhibition Research Assistant to support the curatorial research phase of an upcoming exhibition on the work of Abdias Nascimento (Brazil, 1914–2011)—a seminal artist and intellectual whose work bridged art, activism, and the Afro-diasporic experience across the Americas.

The Exhibition Research Assistant will be responsible for reviewing a range of primary and secondary sources in both Portuguese and English for use by the exhibition’s curatorial and interpretation teams. Working closely with these teams, the Research Assistant will help build the scholarly foundation of the project by identifying, reading, synthesizing, and translating key materials related to Abdias Nascimento’s life, work, and intellectual networks.

Project Description

The Walker Art Center is organizing the first retrospective in the United States of the work of Abdias Nascimento (Brazil, 1914–2011). Scheduled to premiere at the Walker in spring 2027 before a national and potentially international tour, the exhibition will examine Nascimento’s multifaceted career as an artist, writer, playwright, Pan-African activist, and intellectual.

Nascimento’s paintings combine characters, iconography, insignia, and themes of Afro-Brazilian religiosity, blending elements of geometric abstraction and pop art with the representation of African symbols and deities. His artistic output flourished during his political exile in the United States from 1968 to 1981—first in New York and later in Buffalo—where he developed painting as a new language of expression. “Blocked from English,” he once wrote, “I discovered that I could paint; and through painting I would be able to show what words couldn’t say.”

Nascimento saw his artistic practice as an effort to restore and uplift the values of African culture in Brazil. Of particular interest to him was the spiritual vitality of Afro-Brazilian culture that continued to assert itself through African religion and Candomblé, despite ongoing efforts at censorship and erasure. The exhibition will also foreground Nascimento’s work as the founder, writer, director, and actor of the Teatro Experimental do Negro (Experimental Black Theater; TEN)—a groundbreaking organization established in 1944 to dismantle racial barriers in Brazilian theater and promote Black cultural consciousness.

Another key component of the exhibition is Nascimento’s visionary project, the Museu de Arte Negra (Black Art Museum; MAN), conceived under the auspices of TEN to celebrate Afro-Brazilian and African diasporic arts. Though never fully realized, MAN’s curatorial vision assembled a significant collection of works by Black artists including Rubem Valentim, Sebastião Januário, Melvin Edwards, and others. Select works from the MAN collection, along with archival ephemera and documentation, will be featured in the exhibition.

Primary responsibilities include:

• Conducting in-depth reading and analysis of primary and secondary sources in Portuguese and English (including books, exhibition catalogues, essays, archival documents, and correspondence).
• Producing concise summaries, abstracts, and annotated notes of key texts.
• Extracting and cataloguing relevant quotes and bibliographic references for use in exhibition publication and interpretation.
• Organizing research materials and maintaining a shared research archive (bibliography, notes, and digital files).
• Assisting in identifying significant texts and resources for further research and translation.

Qualifications:

• Demonstrated research and analytical skills.
• Strong reading and writing proficiency in Portuguese and English; Spanish a plus.
• Background in Art History, Latin American Studies, African Diaspora Studies, or related humanities field.
• Ability to read complex theoretical, historical, and literary texts with nuance and attention to detail.
• Excellent organizational skills and clear written communication.
• We welcome applications from individuals who have valid student work authorization (OPT/CPT) or who are otherwise authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship now or in the future.