Sonia Gomes

Sonia Gomes is a black Brazilian artist who was born in 1948. Self-taught, she attended various courses at Guignard School in Belo Horizonte. Her first exhibitions were held between 1994 and 1997, and since then she has continued to exhibit her work both individually and in group shows in South Africa, Germany, Denmark, the USA, France and Brazil. She was the only Brazilian woman chosen by Nigerian curator Okwui Enwezor to participate in the main show of the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. Her work conjures women’s textile handcrafts, with strict gestures of composition that highlight relationships of affection between things and people mediated by memory. In her mixed media sculptures, which combine wire and fabrics by folding, twisting, rolling or sewing, the materials blend and take on unusual shapes, such as in the pieces from the Lugar (2013) and Patuá (2016) series. The latter alludes to amulets of African origin widely used by blacks in Brazil, both during and after slavery, for personal protection. Many of the fabrics the artist works with are remnants from social rites of passage, such as weddings and baptisms.