View Profile

About

First name

Maria Fernanda

Last Name

Paes de Barros

Username

yankatu

Studio Name

YANKATU

Designers

Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros

City

Jundiaí

Country

Brazil

Biography

With a degree in business administration and interior design, Maria Fernanda has worked in the field for over 20 years. She migrated to furniture design in 2014, creating Yankatu, a design studio through which she carries out projects with social impact alongside Brazilian artisans. The encounter with the art world happened naturally in 2020 when the search for the appreciation of Brazilian artisans and their knowledge generates a growing discomfort regarding invisibility and lack of knowledge about the reality of Brazilian cultural traditions. Her work is based on relationships that go beyond the gaze and are established on mutual trust and admiration. Her production spans a long timelessness and also a continuity, resulting from the privilege and fluidity of the otherness of established relationships. It is in the power of art that she finds the way to share her learning, activate the gaze and listening of others, seeking to generate in them the same discomfort she feels and, in this way, encourage them to act. It is through a relational aesthetic that she aims to join forces because the reaction of the other, the spectator, is essential for the realization of her art, which does not end with the created object but rather expands into the immaterial and impalpable field. Her works involves various materials without settling on anyone, despite her familiarity with solid wood. It goes from clay to feathers with the same lightness that conveys strong messages in a poetic way.

Solo Shows

Show Name

Passagens

Date

2022

Group Shows

Show Name

Tel Aviv Biennale of Craft and Design

Date

2023

Show Name

Amazonie Immersive

Date

2022

Show Name

Visión y Tradición

Date

2022

Show Name

Orgânico

Date

2021

Show Name

The Chair

Date

2021

Show Name

Sentar, Ler, Escrever

Date

2020

Show Name

Duas Crônicas

Date

2019

Show Name

Artesãos, o ouro que aflora pelas mãos

Date

2018

Show Name

Unknown Territories

Date

2018

Show Name

Moldar, Mudar – a vida moldada no barro da alma

Date

2017

Show Name

Design + Art do Brasil

Date

2017

Show Name

Fio da Meada

Date

2015

Awards & Nominations

Award name

Creat̩ur Design Awards РBest Design Collection nominee

Year

2022

Award name

Muda Award

Year

2020

Award name

6th Brazilian Object Award – A CASA Museum – SP, Brazil

Year

2018

Award name

5th Brazilian Object Award – A CASA Museum – SP, Brazil

Year

2016

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Subscribe and get 5% off
your first purchase