He has participated in individual and collective exhibitions since 2001 with works involving the body, personal experiences, and the revisiting of historical episodes, particularly in relation to Brazilian iconographies and significant events in the struggle for the rights of Black people.

[4] Obá has described his work as being concerned with reclaiming his African heritage in a society that has sought to dilute Black culture.

However, his art serves as a space where he can remain a Catholic but, according to the artist, escape from the rules and injustices of organized religion to imagine redemption of the Black body from the vestiges of slavery and reductive eroticization.

[6] In 2020, Obá created a large-scale painting titled “Wade in the Water II” as an homage to George Floyd, whose name has become synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement.

[7] In 2024, his work was included in One Becomes Many, a group show at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida, of Afro-Brazilian artists considering diasporic religious practices and visual arts, His artwork was showcased alongside objects by Rosana Paulino, Emanoel Araujo, Paulo Nazareth, and Sonia Gomes, among others.