Emerson Adriano Catarina

Emerson Adriano Catarina (born 8 August 1945) is an acclaimed Brazilian artist who had an important role in the Tropicália movement in the 1960s. He is also known for his founding works in the rage comics genre.
Early years
Emerson began his art career as a boy, doing woodcut for Cordel literature books in his city Belém do Pará.
When he was 18, Emerson went to study in the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro where he met Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark and worked as an assistant for building their instalations.
He develop a very close relation with these artists and engaged in their artistic movement, the Tropicália.
Ostracism
The 1964 military revolution discouraged the arts in Brazil and in 1968, Catarina fled the persecution to live in Tanzania. There, free from political pressure, he dedicated his time to absorb the locals culture and arts. The influence of Tanzanian culture becomes clear in his work: the rustic and tribal features started appearing in his painting and drawing as he was experiencing new platforms to paint on such as trees and cave walls.
Return to Brazil
After almost 25 years away, Catarina returned to Brazil in 1992 in time to attend to the exhibition, where the contact with the ideas of sustainability led him to start working with new technologies.
Catarina's work evolved from the more traditional media into the digital era while keeping the simplicity of its Tanzanian roots.
Success and anonymity
Catarina's latter works became very successful on the internet and spread among communities and web forums in the form of memes., but many don`t even know about their original author. Because of many different appropriations of his work, Catarina has not received the credit he deserves for his work.<ref name="criator"/>

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