VYSLab is an independent atelier located in Brazil, São Paulo State (But sometimes the studio is in PARIS and other places too)
Alright, there are two pathways to take from here, the 1) :
”Vannie Gama is a fulltime artist and scholar. Since most of their projects contains social activism and environmental activism, the studio does not receive finantial support or external funding from companies, governments or institutions in a longterm format. Hence depending exclusively on the sale of works of art, exhibitions, scientific and artistic projects, books, and educational initiatives such as lectures, workshops and classes at universities, civil organizations, festivals, and events.
Between 2024-2026 we have an open project agenda for: long-season exhibitions on the continents: American, European, Asian and African (in these two years we did not cover Oceania for logistical reasons), interdisciplinary collaborative projects around the world without continental limitations , participation in specific events without continental limitations, and projects for physical/digital works of art. In these two years, the agenda for collaborative writing – articles and books – is closed due to the development of ongoing theoretical research.
And the second, 2):
Hi! I’m Vannie Gama, a middle-class artist who struggles with paying my rent and my bills because I ”decided” to live from what makes me alive: this all thing called ”art”. I’m 27, being an artist since 19 (or, correcting, have chosen this life since I am 19, during the 2nd year of Art School) almost 28 by the time I have updated this page, so you can imagine all the comments I hear around: ”Won’t you find a real job? ”, ”oh but you can be a professor full-time, you know? Got your master for something!”, or ”Won’t you get married?”, or even ”Are you still vegetarian?”, my favourite one is ”How do you pronounce ‘Aurin’ and why is this your name now?”.
Short answer for all of these questions: Art is my real job and I am not the first artist to be making a few hundred bucks for every in-deep conceptual artworks and yes, everybody knows it does suck, because it doesn’t pay material, bills and everything, sometimes I give some classes here and there and do other sort of smallest jobs to make sure in the end of the day I can finish that book or that painting; I would love to be a professor in some moment, but maybe not full time, you know? Although having a transgender person as a professor is something I would’ve liked to have experienced when I was questioning myself and ”what are the limits for us” (which is none, obviously), but being an artist will always be my first priority, which leads us for the new response: No, I am not going to get married (almost again) because non-binary people cannot get married (at least in Brazil) since we are not binary, and I am very happy to be a solo parent of a nice little cat, Carina. It is so hard to balance being there for your family, friends and your cat already! And, yes, I am still vegetarian (since I’m 14 years old, and no, my parents are not vegetarians at all, but they are amazing people and actually my stepmother learned lots of vegetarian recipes because of me, isn’t that a great privilege? I think it is!).
My family is no rich one: they help me with what they can, giving me good advice, helping me with basic living things like food from time to time, if my electricity bill is almost to be cut, yes, they help me out. As myself, they live paying rent and we help each other on the small details. We became closer recently and nowadays we are very united, they accept myself, my pronouns, my name, and, the worst, my profession. I am the first in the family to have a master degree, the first one to travel to Europe.. the first to do many things, so no, I am not from a long line of the elite or something like that. Which leads us to the last common question, ”Aurin” pronouncites differently depending on who reads it. For the french, germans, brazilians and english will be all different.. I feel different everytime my craft borns in different geographies and so should be with my name, now, my legal name – can’t describe the feeling of changing my name, doing this last step as a transgender person. But so, let’s get back for the page content itself: support an independent artist.
No Galleries, no rich family, horrible on doing wealthy networks: I talk to people that makes sense in other levels, not to .. I don’t know, ”get somewhere”. This was always a problem. My friends are not rich people too, not in the capital sense; they are smart and creative, crazy personalities as myself (probably). Nowadays I have around 5 art collectors that are amazing supporters of my craft, despite people who asks comissions here and there, or events I take part, punctual things, like academic events and scholarships, but it is still a life where every month something is not paid properly and I must say, I buy everything secondhand, cook everyday, so no, I don’t lead a fancy life At All: don’t even have a car, ”Oliver” is the name of my bicicle and what magic we can do shopping with it. haha
I am not saying all of it to make the portrait of the poor artist, but to share how it is to do all the artworks, essays, books and collabs I did during the last almost 10 years and, it is hard, but it is something I keep doing, despite the financial issues of every year. 2025 is no different until now so, I decided to update this page with a little more humour, because maybe, all you can see is a fancy painting and conceptual text that might not show that someone is having to decide if visit a friend or buys 2 paint tubes because we cannot do both.
For that, I decided to open this space for you who might want to support an independent artist. There is the section below about commissions, and projects, but you can also just share whatever you see I’m doing with people (this website, my social pages if they’re up, everything @vanniegama always) and you can support me one time, or monthly, or yearly that I guarantee you that makes all the different for me, to have the little how to keep this all going. And I hope, in the future, I can change this page to a thankful page for being able to make a living without so hard struggles as the ones of nowadays.
To donate:
VYSLAb.
You can also leave your ideas about the studio and other stuff if you want too, for instance, I was wondering if you think it would be nice to sell some artworks directly through here, this website, or not. Leave your thoughts, they will be highly appreciated. Stay hydrated and don’t read fake news!!
about Projects and commissions for works of art currently carried out at the studio and the following lines of research and media
- Series or individual volumes of scientific illustrations in watercolor or oil paint, scannable or exportable, depending on the purpose of the contact. Illustrations of one species, multiple species, ecosystems/biomes/niches and interactions between species fit into this category.
- Series or individual volumes of closed projects in the thematic axis (interdisciplinary or not) of contact with execution time between two months and two years (including audiovisual/multimedia projects)
- Open reinterpretations of classic works (literary, artistic-visual, cinematographic or scientific)
For projects, sales of artworks, collaborations, invitations, workshops and commissions, please email vanniegama.vyslab@gmail.com for more information with clear subject of the contact. It is always a pleasure to visit other countries, cities and cultural spaces, as well as to work on specific projects or leave works of art in new locations.
VYSLAb.
If you rather talk to me to explain better what you have in mind, feel free to book a meeting with me through:
This studio does not carry out and do not work within the following themes on their projects and works of art (also not accepting proposals that contains):
- – Sport hunting.
- – Extremism and interpretations that disrespect human rights of any society and social group (such as indigenous and queer diversity).
- – Realistic portraits based on selfie photos and representations of sensational angles of people or objects.
- -Representation of controversial historical figures with the purpose of applauding them.
- – Replicas of works of art.
- – Religious manifestation intolerant of religious, social and geographic diversity.
We deliver to all countries, and visit all countries that accept queer artists.
Please send your contact email in one of the following languages: Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, German or Japanese.
Some visual news.
VYSLAb.
Last but not least important.. Do you like music? I am obsessed with it, honestly. I do have some spotify playlists, including some with other people so, if you’d like to take a look.. enjoy! (Random but kindly random content).
