Arts & Artisans

Ateliê UXUA

BRAZIL • WEAVERS • January 2023

Artisans working within UXUA Casa Hotel & Spa's gardens to create pieces for the UXUA CASA collection, recently re-named UXUA D.A.S. to better reflect growth from a pure decor range to a total tropical lifestyle collection combining decor with fashion and accessories.

Two antique wooden looms within the Atelier are responsible for the expanding range of woven wearables including kimonos and kaftans, created with organic cotton and dyes such as natural indigo from the hillsides of nearby Minas Gerais state.

ISAKA E NESHANI - ARTISTAS HUNI KUIN DA AMAZÔNIA

BRAZIL • NATIVE AMERICAN ARTISTS • April 2019

In May 2018 the Huni Kuin tribe in Acre graciously hosted UXUA designer Nossica Al-Koubaisy and shared with her secrets of traditional weaving. Months later two Huni Kuin artists travelled across Brazil to join Nossica and UXUA creator Wilbert Das in Trancoso for a 1-month Artist in Casa residency. Isaka and Neshani witnessed the culture of Pataxó natives in the village of Barra Velha, and were exposed to new artistic expressions during visits to the workshops of painter Damião C. Vieira and ceramicist Zé da Cerâmica. Local youth at environmental project MAMA Trancoso learned about life in the Amazon rainforest from them – and exchanged ideas about preservation – in a full-day workshop.

The entire experience inspired artworks by Isaka and Neshani displayed April 17 - 20, 2019 at UXUA Quadrado, beside unique works of 3 other Brazilian native peoples, the Kayapó, Xingú, and Waiwai.

Joey Yu

UK • Illustrator-Animator • July 2018

As UXUA founder Wilbert Das rose to success as a Creative Director in the fashion industry he never forgot his art school roots, making a habit of supporting emerging talents as collaborators.

The fresh style of 23-year-old Joey Yu's fashion illustration recently came onto Wilbert's radar and led to a spontaneous collaboration, with Joey living with the UXUA family a month while capturing scenes of daily life in Trancoso. The collection of drawings reveal a fantasy version of what is already a tropical fantasy, an ultra paradise of color and lushness.

A few of Joey's illustrations were turned into a remarkable UXUA Artist Canvas.

Damián Calvo

USA • Filmmaker • May 2018

Through his career Damián Calvo's worldwide collaborations have been presented in museums and international film festivals including Tate Modern in London, The Sundance Film Festival and The Broad Museum in Los Angeles.

Damián's output crosses genres from documentary and narrative films to fine art and commercial portrait photography - all of which are evident in the wonderful works he produced in Trancoso, in particular during a visit to the native Pataxó reservation.

See a small sampling of Damián's work also represented at UXUA Artist Canvases.

Linda Pugliese

USA • Photographer • April 2018

Based in NY City, Linda Pugliese caught UXUA's attention with her food photography. However, during her stay in Trancoso food was only a point of departure leading to new subjects and themes, and she gave UXUA some of the most atmospheric images we have.

Originally from Annapolis, Maryland, Linda grew up surrounded by sailboats, shorelines and crabs - so trading the North Atlantic for the South was perhaps an easy leap, as her eye seemed to easily capture the real lifestyle of Trancoso and its inhabitants.

More of Linda's photographic work at UXUA Artist Canvases.

Machteld Schouten

The Netherlands • Artist • February 2017

Machteld Schouten is a versatile Amsterdam-based artist who began her career 25 years ago as a fashion designer, the field she studied at prestigious Artez University of the Arts where she recently returned as a part-time professor to share her experiences.

Arriving in Trancoso Machteld was fascinated by elements of nature and history influencing UXUA's latest project, Casa Wilbert, and combatting her fear of heights she took on a soaring wall to create a mural inspired by a 19th century watercolor of the Brazilian Amazon by German botanist and explorer Carl Freidrich Philipp von Martius. Using acrylic paint in green tones with a glow of pink, Machteld bought the biggest brush she could find and applied watercolor-like strokes achieving an open, sketch-like result.

Melanie Dunea

USA • Photographer • June 2016

NY photographer Melanie Dunea travels the world on assignment shooting some of the most powerful people in the public eye. Her work graces the pages of titles such as Vanity Fair, Time, The Guardian, Harpers Bazaar and Vogue.

Her wildly successful book publishing projects have been her recent passion after gaining critical acclaim for My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals in which Melanie poses a question to the world’s top chefs, “what would your final meal be?”

At UXUA, Melanie's inspiration came from the sense of total freedom she identified as the dominant mood of Trancoso. Without limiting herself to a single theme she allowed curiosity to lead her. Among her eventual subjects are dramatic portraits of people she encountered – frequently staff of UXUA or artisans collaborating with designer Wilbert Das – as well as interior shots and still life fixing a keen eye on the textures of Bahia, and finally stunning images paying colorful homage to local culinary traditions.

See a few of Melanie's Trancoso photos in her contribution to UXUA Artist Canvases.

Antonio Riello

Italy • Artist • April 2016

UK-based artist Antonio Riello explains his works as hinting at the ambiguity of identity and society. Exploring techniques from painting, sculpture, photography, installation, apparel, even video games, irony is always present, as well as deep appreciation for craft - no surprise in a native son of Italy’s tradition-rich Veneto region.

At UXUA Antonio created AFTER ROSSEAU (LE DOUANIER), a deceptively simple installation of reclaimed wood. The work functions not only by calling attention to itself as an object, but also by celebrating and “framing” the spectacular surrounding Atlantic rainforest, recalling references – some authentic and some playful - of the Brazilian experience such as native Pataxó graphics (which are in reality tire-tracks).

Peter Kempkens

The Netherlands • Designer • April 2015

Before transitioning to interior and furniture design, Dutchman Peter Kempkens was an in-demand streetwear designer in Italy, creating ready-to-wear collections with distribution in markets from USA to Japan. The fantasy and imagination behind his fashion work is easily spotted in his contributions to UXUA: playful and absolutely unpredictable lighting, tables and chairs which emphasize recycling and abstract reinterpretations of handicrafts which have been produced for centuries in Trancoso.

Lucas Simões

Brazil • Artist • December 2014

Trained as both an architect and urbanist, Lucas Simões is an emerging name in the Brazilian arts scene, with works in major museums and galleries including the MAC-USP, the Itaú Cultural, Emma Thomas Gallery and in 2015 an international solo show at London’s Space In Between (SIB) gallery.

While at UXUA Lucas took an original approach, composing three-dimensional pieces reproducing organic forms with industrial materials influence, such as glass and cement. The result are trunks, wooden benches, folded papers, glasses and natural fiber surfaces that achieve new meanings, an encounter of the abstract and the architectural forms, which balance between beauty and strangeness, simple movement and depth.

Rodrigo Almeida

Brazil • Designer • June 2014

São Paulo, Brazil, based designer Rodrigo Almeida is absolutely authentic, adapting found – not sourced - raw materials into furniture and décor in astoundingly creative ways which hint at Brazilian influences such as Tropicalism of the 1960’s. His growing desirability among collectors, galleries, and museums worldwide reflect his artistic approach – all works are executed in single-edition pieces.

During Rodrigo’s stay at UXUA he was inspired to create what he calls a Quadrado Collection, a set of exclusive objects inspired by Trancoso’s 500-year-old town square (the Quadrado) which was founded by Portuguese Jesuits, occupied for centuries by a small native population but largely forgotten by the world, and today preserved in a pristine, colonial style.

The materials used include pieces of old windows, fallen tree trunks, steel, rope and leather, assembled in a rough and unrefined manner, hinting at local architecture and the Quadrado itself, a place which seems suspended in time.

Marcantonio Raimondi Malerba

Italy • Designer • January 2014

The Italian Marcantonio Raimondi Malerba is a growing name in the furniture design world known for collaborations with leading Italian firms like Seletti and Mogg. His works are present in the most select furniture stores across the world.

The pieces Marcantonio created during his stay at UXUA epitomize his love of nature and organic materials, featuring installations of vases, planters and lamps made using earth, tree limbs, and recycled ceramics.

Mauro Zolin

Italy • Designer • December 2013

During his stay at UXUA, Italian furniture-maker and interior designer Mauro Zolin’s rough industrial style was applied to local organic materials such as thatch, which he stuffed within unfinished metal rings to form lounge chairs. One of the most appreciated pieces among international design press (and Instagramed by celebrities such as Anderson Cooper) is a ‘Bahian Boom Box’, a Bose stereo speaker hidden within a wooden tree-trunk.

Mark Inglis

Ireland • Designer • November 2013

Irish leather craftsman Mark Inglis produced a small collection of hand-carved pieces during his visit to UXUA. Using organic plant-dyes (provided by local Pataxó people) Mark created guest-books, menus, key-chains, even a spectacularly elaborate weight-belt for UXUA’s spa. The themes of the carvings are local and largely based on nature; fish, tropical plants and birds, as well as aspects of local Bahian culture such as spicy home-cooking, capoeira (traditional Bahian martial-arts inspired dance), and forró dancing.

On Mark's second visit in 2018 he expanded his efforts into furnishings, chairs and lamps for the UXUA D.A.S. collection, as well as a bag collection with some pieces created jointly with Tapurumã, a native Pataxó artist.