When Paula won the $100,000 Chanel Next Prize this year, the painter spoke of his plans to spend the money on ‘a forest-school… guided by ancestral knowledge, so that young artists and researchers can continue developing their work’. Such a proclamation reinforced the artist’s ongoing commitment to educational initiatives and community building: in 2019 he won a Marcantonio Vilaça Award, the most prominent art prize in Brazil, and used the cash reward to establish Sertão Negro, a cultural centre located near to his studio in Goiânia. In addition to hosting community events, the centre offers monthlong residencies to national and international artists, whose first week is spent in one of two local quilombos – settlements originally established by escaped enslaved people. Aside from featuring in a group show in June at Mariane Ibrahim in Mexico City, Paula was a major presence in Adriano Pedrosa’s Venice Biennale exhibition, which included works from his Full-Body Portraits series (2023–24) – 16 paintings depicting historical figures of African descent who were involved in antislavery movements in Brazil.