Brazilian artist Dalton Paula is putting the finishing touches to a new series of paintings for his solo presentation with Lisson at Frieze London, which runs 14–18 October 2026 in The Regent's Park. In a studio interview published by Frieze on 2 October, the painter opened up about the coded language of objects that populates his still lifes, and the weight of responsibility he feels toward the historical figures he portrays. The new works take their cue from Luiz Gama (1830–1882), the Brazilian lawyer and abolitionist who secured freedom for hundreds of enslaved people. Rather than painting Gama's likeness, Paula paints the world around him: chairs, goats, glasses of water. The goat carries layered meanings — in Afro-diasporic religions it stands for healing and blessing, while in Brazil the word was once deployed as a racial slur, and the animal's toughness makes it an emblem of endurance and resistance. Glasses of water, a recurring motif in his canvases, function as offerings intended to bring healing from the wounds of slavery and racism. Doubling is another signature device. Paired chairs, twin goats and mirrored compositions nod to Cosmas and Damian, the twin saints regarded as protectors of children in Brazil, and express what Paula describes as the relationship between self and other. He frequently paints on the covers of encyclopedias — volumes he associates with European systems of knowledge and power — replacing their authority with Black protagonists. The same conviction led him to found Sertão Negro, an art school in Goiânia, out of a belief that education transforms lives and sets people free. Paula, who worked night shifts as a firefighter for 12 years while attending art school in the mornings, says painting remains for him an act of care and presence. He deliberately leaves his compositions open, inviting viewers to complete them with their own subjectivity, tracing pencil lines and layers the longer they look. His Lisson solo ranks among the one-artist presentations flagged as highlights of this year's fair, which brings almost 300 galleries from 48 countries to London.