IRMANDADE

Lines that cross the diaspora

Brotherhood is a word that refers to the bond of kinship between brothers, sisters or deeper connection between diverse people.

The concept of this exhibition is related to a search for community, brotherhood/sisterhood, which was disconnected in the Afro-diaspora during slavery. Today this reconnection has been strategically sewn among black people from the recognition of the other as a brother or sister and in small communities, reinforcing the concept of brotherhood/sisterhood that was taken from us in the past.

Using the lines of thread as an analogy for connection and reconnection, the artist connects each canvas with red thread. On the canvases are images of black people connected to each other by blood and ancestry. Sometimes these threads signify a search for something deeper, perhaps belonging, self, lost connection, and others they stand as a confirmation of the existence of this concept.

During the period of slavery black people were connected to each other by chains and taken from their homeland, and today we reconnect in a shared gaze, customs, stories, and in our collectivities and spirit. This reunion is the possibility of rebuilding the notion of irmandade.

Reflections

The human being from the beginning has always sought belonging. Belonging, identifying with a group, is essential to our survival.

With immigrants, it's no different. One of the many struggles we face as immigrants is not being able to see ourselves in the eyes of the people we live with. Transiting the streets, looking at faces, clothes, small gestures, objects and the like and not recognizing ourselves in them causes us great insecurity. We need a connection, a form of recognition, for the creation of self-confidence and the ability to live. 

In this series, composed of paintings, installation, and performance, I create a portrait of community that reflects a part of my self, but also a little of this strangeness that is lived as a Brazilian immigrant in the US. This collection plays with all that I have accumulated in my journey for belonging, and that is still revealed daily in my life. The works will have images of Brazilians in their daily gestures, clothes, and peculiarities, revealing a space, a collective, where I find self, and that I call “belonging."

I am, we all are, reflections of my communities.

This is a series of paintings inspired by the duality of Afro Latinidad observed in popular and religious manifestations, which in various ways unfold in a new manifesto, different from their original forms brought from Europe and Africa. A series of creatures are born there that will tell this new story, crossing elements of Catholicism and religions of African matrices through allegorical, mystical, sacred and profane aspects.

Fall Festival Dream with Alebrijes

You are invited to this family-friendly festival that features new temporary sculptures by six Houston Latinx artists. The artists have created large-scale, fantastical figures inspired by the Mexican folk-art tradition of alebrijes.

The festival celebrates the MFAH collection of Latin American art and opening day of the exhibition Golden Worlds: The Portable Universe of Indigenous Colombia.

Free Admission
Both the Fall Festival and the Museum are open to the public with free general admission, thanks to the generosity of H-E-B.