Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabriela Burlamaqui.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am Gabriela Burlamaqui. I am 23 years old, a self-taught Brazilian artist, and my story begins in a beach house in Praia dos Carneiros – Pernambuco that no longer exists.
My grandma Helena was always involved with the arts. She’s very crafty. When I was little, we decorated our beach house together. I remember painting the sconces that went on the wall, little wood sticks she made by hand, painted white. I also painted a piece that hung above the dinner table for years. That beach house is gone now. The beach got gentrified. No more family houses, just resorts and hotels. I made a painting about it called “Guaiamum”. It shows a blue crab in extinction where I’m from, and under the image there are coordinates to where I grew up.
I was heavily bullied as a kid, always for how I looked. I’ve always been different, and that bothered people around me, even my mother who was just 19 when she had me. When I was 12, my biological father kidnapped me from school. I had never spent a minute with him before that. He lied to the school saying he had authorization to pick me up. He took me to a house in the middle of a favela in Olinda, Pernambuco. My grandma found me later. That changed everything for me.
When I was 15, my stepfather adopted me. I got the name I have now, “Burlamaqui”. I love my last name. I’ll forever be grateful for what he did. After the adoption, we all moved to the US. My life started over. I had no clue how to talk, how to move, how to be. But at least I had my grandma here with me.
I started school here and fell in love with art again. A middle school art class sparked that fire I had lost. I started with oil pastels for a project, and since then I haven’t stopped. Except for when I was 16 years old and my mother took my paints away as she claimed they were “too messy”. Pastels, then markers, then acrylic paint. Now I use acrylic and sometimes recycled materials.
I left my mom’s house a couple days after turning 18. I always felt like I should be free. I was heavily monitored as a kid and teenager. GPS on my car, location services, a phone system where everything on my phone showed up on my parents’ phone too. There was a camera inside my bedroom. For most of my life, in all the houses I lived in, there were cameras everywhere. So I didn’t have a normal childhood or teenagehood. When I turned 18, I left to live at my grandma’s house, and that’s when I officially started my art career.
I finished high school online at home. During my senior year, a guy who had bullied me for years threatened to kill me and my family in the middle of first period. I ran to my counselor. She said there was nothing more they could do, even though nothing had happened to him. So they told me it would be best to finish at home. I did.
I had my first group show at 19. Since then I haven’t stopped showing. Back then I painted abstract and impressionist pieces, weird faces and locations. I was still trying to find myself. When I was 20, I moved to downtown Orlando with my husband, Junior. He’s a musician and music producer, and the love of my life. We got married, and I started feeling this deep, deep longing for Brazil. I was kind of lost, but I found myself reading, watching documentaries, and listening to obscure Brazilian music from the northeast. That’s where my latest and only collection came from.
I started with “Café da Meia-Noite”, which means midnight coffee. It’s an homage to my grandpa. He loves coffee and has it in the middle of the night before bed. Then “Guaiamum”, the blue crab painting. Then “DDD 081”, which shows a woman drinking beer in a bikini at the beach. I wanted to show a Brazilian woman in a moment of relaxation, because every time the media shows us, we’re suffering. I’m tired of seeing us suffer. We have happy moments too.
I also made Amor. It shows a beach with an empty beach chair and a cactus in the back. Scattered everywhere are squares painted in ombré colors, those are my memories at the beach. The chair is empty because we can’t go there anymore. The cactus means what was comfortable and beautiful is now dangerous and taken. This is about the beach I grew up on that got taken by rich people.
I made more pieces too. One called Sangue Latino, an homage to a Brazilian singer who sang that his blood is 100% Latin. I’ve been painting Brazilian culture, fruits, plants, social justice movements, the beauty and the bad. Since I was 20, and now I’m 23, the collection is finally done. I’m moving on to something else.
Because of the immigration process, I spent six years without going to Brazil. That was a big factor in the longing. But right after I finished the collection, I got my green card in 2025. In January of 2026, I went to Brazil for the first time in six years. It was a magical experience. Magical, magical, magical. I love where I’m from, and it gave me more fuel to keep showing everyone that where I’m from is worth seeing and worth hearing from.
People depict the Brazilian northeast as decadent, poor, ugly. It’s everything but those things. We are the strongest pillar of Brazil. We have the best food, the best culture, the best music, the best people, the best beaches. Yes, we have difficulties because of political issues, but we are the epitome of Brazilian culture. That’s what I’m trying to say with my paintings.
Besides painting, I animate. I use Procreate Dreams on my iPad, completely self-taught since 2024. My animations are personal, me and my friends, me and my husband. I also animate for other people. Right now I’m working with Search Central Florida to make their advertisements, and it will be 100% animated.
I started doing markets in the middle of this year. I really liked it. I like being in the middle of the art community, connected to everyone. But we’ll see what the future holds. I still really want to go to art school. In Brazil, I want to do art school there. I’m waiting for my husband to finish his university so I can start mine. My dream is to have an immersive exhibition at the Museum of Orlando showing Brazilian art and culture to other people, but without the stereotype. I want to show the real, true Brazil where I came from.
My art comes from a place of childhood longing and love for where I’m from.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, it hasn’t been smooth.
I was bullied for how I looked. taken by my biological father at 12. Heavily monitored as a teenager with cameras, GPS, everything. Then six years without going back to Brazil because of immigration. Those struggles are the reason my art exists.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a self-taught artist. My work is deeply connected to Pernambuco, in the Northeast of Brazil. I paint with acrylic and sometimes recycled materials. I’m known for colorful, emotional pieces that show the real Brazil, without stereotypes. I paint our culture, our fruits, our plants, our social justice movements.
I’m most proud of my solo show at the Ormond Beach Museum in 2025. That was a huge moment for me. I was also part of a group show in NYC in 2023, which was incredible.
Besides painting, I animate on my iPad using Procreate Dreams, and I do markets around Orlando. What sets me apart is my story, the longing, the immigration, the six years without going back. My art comes from childhood memories and a deep love for my home.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I’m lucky to be from Brazil. There is so much culture, history, music, and color to pull from. I never run out of inspiration. It’s the heart of everything I paint.
Second, I’m lucky to have my grandma. She introduced me to art when I was little, and she has supported me through everything. When life got hard, she was my safe place.
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