Sonia Gomes

Sonia Gomes was born in 1948 to a Black mother and white father in Caetanópolis, a small town in Minas Gerais considered to be the birthplace of Brazil's textile industry.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/news_detail/osgemeos-and-sonia-gomes-join-lehmann-maupin|title=OSGEMEOS and Sonia Gomes join Lehmann Maupin|website=www.lehmannmaupin.com|language=en-US|access-date=2017-03-11}}{{Cite web |last=Halperin |first=Julia |date=2022-11-29 |title=Artist Sonia Gomes Invites Us Into Her São Paulo Studio, Where Cast-Off Fabrics Become Intimate Sculptures |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/sonia-gomes-sao-paulo-studio-visit-2217874 |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}} As a child, she showed an interest in deconstructing her clothes and creating her own jewelry from leftover fabric and found materials. Despite this early inclination towards artistic creation, Gomes initially pursued a career in law. In 1994, at the age of 45, Gomes left her legal career to attend the Guignard School of Art in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. This pivotal decision marked her formal entry into the art world.{{Cite journal |last=Laster |first=Paul |date=2020 |title=Sonia Gomes |journal=Sculpture |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=96–97 |via=Art, Design & Architecture Collection}}{{Cite web |last=Langlois |first=Jill |date=August 28, 2020 |title=Fabrics With Powerful Stories to Tell |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/arts/design/sonia-gomes-brazil-art.html |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=The New York Times}}

She credits her maternal grandmother with her interest in art. In a 2022 profile in Sculpture magazine she states, "My grandmother was Black; she was a sorceress and would bless people with a branch of a plant called arruda. It was a ritual she would perform, and the memory of it is really strong for me. Since then, I've always been interested in craft – in things made by hand and folk art and the festivals, rituals, churches, and processions."{{Cite journal |last=Whitney |first=Kay |date=2022 |title=Sonia Gomes: Radical Intimacy |journal=Sculpture |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=14–17 |via=Art & Architecture Source}}

In a 2024 interview, Gomes identified Afro-Brazilian artist Arthur Bispo do Rosário as a source of validation, noting they "share a visceral, collective memory that operates unconsciously" and that Bispo, and some other artists of African descent, paved the way for her and others in their struggles to have their practice recognized as art.{{cite magazine |last=Veitch |first=Mara |date=2024 |title= At 45, Sonia Gomes Left Behind a Legal Career to Become an Artist |url=https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2024/01/18/sonia-gomes-artist-sculpture |magazine=Cultured Magazine |location= |publisher= |access-date=2024-02-04}}

File:Correnteza, 2018, Sonia Gomes at NGA 2023.jpeg in 2023]]

Gomes combines secondhand textiles with everyday materials, such as driftwood, wire, and furniture to create abstract sculptures. Her compositions stem from a spontaneous and casual practice of deconstructing and re-assembling everyday objects; Lágrima (Tear) (2014), for example, was made with a blue tablecloth that once belonged to her friend's family.{{Cite web|last=Paik|first=Sherry|date=2020|title=Sonia Gomes {{!}} Artist Profile|url=https://ocula.com/artists/soniagomes/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=Ocula}}{{Cite web|title=Sonia Gomes {{!}} Pace Gallery|url=https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/sonia-gomes/|access-date=2021-12-03|website=www.pacegallery.com|date=30 September 2020 |language=en}} Gomes created Correnteza (2018) using found driftwood and fabric forms she stitched to the wood; critic Paul Laster wrote in Sculpture that the juxtaposition of the fabric and wood created "a compelling tension."{{cite web |last1=Laster |first1=Paul |title=Sonia Gomes |url=https://sculpturemagazine.art/sonia-gomes/ |website=Sculpture |access-date=18 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220518061428/https://sculpturemagazine.art/sonia-gomes/ |archive-date=18 May 2022 |date=29 October 2019 |url-status=live}}

Gomes' use of found and gifted objects is informed by her decolonial standpoint and is both a manifestation of Brazil’s rapid and uneven industrial development and a critique of Brazil's culture of wasteful consumption and environmental destruction.{{Cite web |title=Sonia Gomes {{!}} Pace Gallery |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/sonia-gomes/ |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=www.pacegallery.com |date=30 September 2020 |language=en}} These materials, which arrive at her studio more or less by chance, guide her through the creative process and "always tell [her] what they want to be" as she reshapes and entangles them into one another.{{cite web |last1=Brenner |first1=Fernanda |title= Sonia Gomes Responds to Her Materials |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/sonia-gomes-2023-interview |website=Frieze |access-date=1 Jan 2024 }} She often juxtaposes soft and hard materials, creating movement in her sculptures which allude to her love of popular Brazilian dances. Gomes's work features in international collections and is exhibited in the David Geffen Wing of the Museum of Modern Art.{{Cite web |title=208 History into Being |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/galleries/5537 |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=MoMa}} The artist is represented by Mendes Wood DM, Blum & Poe, and Pace Gallery.{{Cite web|title=Sonia Gomes Represented by Blum & Poe « News « Blum & Poe|url=https://www.blumandpoe.com/news_item/sonia_gomes_represented_by_blum_poe|access-date=2021-11-10|website=www.blumandpoe.com|language=en}}

In 2024, Gomes represented the Vatican at the Holy See Pavilion in the 60th Venice Biennale, Italy, participating in the "With My Eyes" group exhibition held in the Giudecca Women's Detention Center.{{Cite news |last=Scott |first=Alec |date=2024-04-19 |title=The Vatican Transforms a Prison Into a Gallery |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/19/arts/design/vatican-pavilion-womens-prison.html |access-date=2024-04-23 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

• ...vivem no compasso do sol, Mendes Wood DM, Paris (2024){{Cite web |title=...vivem no compasso do sol |url=https://mendeswooddm.com/pt/exhibitions/319-...vivem-no-compasso-do-sol-sonia-gomes/ |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=Mendes Wood DM |language=pt}}
• Sonia Gomes: O mais profundo é a pele (Skin is the deepest part), Pace Gallery, New York (2022){{Cite web |title=Sonia Gomes: O mais profundo é a pele (Skin is the deepest part) {{!}} Pace Gallery |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/sonia-gomes-o-mais-profundo-e-a-pele/ |access-date=2023-02-14 |website=www.pacegallery.com |language=en}}
• When the sun rises in blue, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles (2021){{Cite web|title=When the Sun Rises in Blue « Exhibitions « Blum & Poe|url=https://www.blumandpoe.com/exhibitions/sonia_gomes|access-date=2021-11-10|website=www.blumandpoe.com|language=en}}
• I Rise – I’m a Black Ocean, Leaping and Wide, Museum Frieder Burda and Salon Berlin, Baden-Baden/Berlin (2019){{Cite web|date=2019-10-12|title=Museum Frieder Burda: Sonia Gomes "I Rise – I'm a Black Ocean, Leaping and Wide"|url=https://www.worldartfoundations.com/museum-frieder-burda-sonia-gomes-i-rise-im-a-black-ocean-leaping-and-wide/|access-date=2021-11-10|website=World Art Foundations|language=en-US}}
• Silence of color, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2019){{Cite web|title=Mendes Wood DM {{!}} Sonia Gomes – The Silence of Color|url=https://mendeswooddm.com/en/exhibition/sonia-gomes|access-date=2021-11-10|website=Mendes Wood DM|language=en}}
• Still I Rise, MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo / Casa de Vidro, São Paulo (2018){{Cite web|title=MASP|url=https://masp.org.br/|access-date=2021-11-10|website=MASP|language=en}}
• A vida renasce, sempre, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói, Rio de Janeiro (2018){{Cite web|title=A Vida Renasce, Sempre|url=https://amlatina.contemporaryand.com/events/a-vida-renasce-sempre/|access-date=2021-11-10|website=C& AMÉRICA LATINA|language=en}}

• One Becomes Many, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida (2024-2026)
• With My Eyes, 60th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2024){{Cite web |date=2024-01-31 |title=Biennale Arte 2024 {{!}} Biennale Arte 2024: Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere |url=https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/biennale-arte-2024-stranieri-ovunque-foreigners-everywhere |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=La Biennale di Venezia |language=en}}
• HARD/SOFT, Vienna, Austria (2023){{Cite web |title=Exhibition - MAK Museum Vienna |url=https://www.mak.at/en/hardsoft |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=www.mak.at |language=en}}
• Tropic of Cancer, Palm Beach, US (2023){{Cite web |date=2024-03-26 |title=Sonia Gomes {{!}} Pace Gallery |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/sonia-gomes/ |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=www.pacegallery.com |language=en}}
• Arte na Moda: MASP Renner, São Paulo, Brazil (2024){{Cite web |title=MASP |url=https://www.masp.org.br/ |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=MASP |language=pt}}
• Coreografias do impossível, 35th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2023){{Cite web |title=Sonia Gomes |url=https://35.bienal.org.br/participante/sonia-gomes/ |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=35th Bienal de São Paulo |language=en-US}}
• Mãos: 35 anos da Mão Afro-Brasileira, São Paulo, Brazil (2023){{Cite web |title=Mãos: 35 anos da Mão Afro-Brasileira |url=https://mam.org.br/exposicao/maos-35-anos-da-mao-afro-brasileira/ |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=MAM |language=pt-br}}
• Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju, Korea (2021){{Cite web|title=Sonia Gomes {{!}} Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea « News « Blum & Poe| url=https://www.blumandpoe.com/news_item/sonia_gomes_gwangju_biennale |access-date=2021-11-10|website=www.blumandpoe.com|language=en}}
• Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK (2021){{Cite web|title=Sonia Gomes {{!}} Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art|url=https://www.biennial.com/2021/exhibition/artists/www.biennial.com/2021/exhibition/artists/sonia-gomes|access-date=2021-11-10|website=www.biennial.com|language=en}}{{Dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• Unconscious Landscape – Works from the Ursula Hauser Collection, Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, UK (2019){{Cite web|title=Unconscious Landscape Works from the Ursula Hauser Collection | publisher=Hauser & Wirth | url=https://www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-exhibitions/23377-unconscious-landscape-works-from-the-ursula-hauser-collection |access-date=2021-11-10|website=www.hauserwirth.com}}
• Experimenting with Materiality, Lévy Gorvy, Zurich, Switzerland (2019){{Cite web|title=Experimenting with Materiality: Terry Adkins, Sonia Gomes, Senga Nengudi, Carol Rama | website=Lévy Gorvy | url=https://www.levygorvy.com/exhibitions/experimenting-with-materiality-terry-adkins-sonia-gomes-senga-nengudi-carol-rama/ |access-date=2021-11-10}}
• Histórias Afro-Atlânticas, MASP, São Paulo, Brazil (2018)
• O Triângulo Atlântico, 11ª Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2018){{Cite web|title=Mercosul Biennial|url=https://amlatina.contemporaryand.com/editorial/mercosul-biennial/|access-date=2021-11-10|website=C& AMÉRICA LATINA|language=en}}
• Tissage, Tressage, Fondation Villa Datris, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France (2018){{Cite web|date=2018-05-20|title=Villa Datris: "Tissage, tressage quand la sculpture défile"|url=https://www.worldartfoundations.com/villa-datris-tissage-tressage-quand-la-sculpture-defile/|access-date=2021-11-10|website=World Art Foundations|language=en-US}}
• Entangled, Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2017){{Cite news|last=Judah|first=Hettie|date=2017-02-27|title=Entangled: Threads and Making|language=en|work=Frieze|issue=186|url=https://www.frieze.com/article/entangled-threads-and-making|access-date=2021-11-10|issn=0962-0672}}
• Revival, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, USA (2017){{Cite web|title=Revival {{!}} Exhibition|url=https://nmwa.org/exhibitions/revival/|access-date=2021-11-10|website=NMWA|language=en-US}}
• All the World's Futures 56ª Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2015){{Cite web|title=Sonia Gomes reflects upon challenges and achievements as a black woman artist – Editorial|url=https://www.sp-arte.com/en/editorial/sonia-gomes-reflects-upon-challenges-and-achievements-as-a-black-woman-artist/|access-date=2021-11-10|website=SP-Arte|language=en-US}}
• The New Afro-Brazilian Hand, Museu Afro Brasil, Sao Paulo (2013){{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/932125281 |title=Revolution in the making: abstract sculpture by women, 1947-2016 |date=2016 |author1=Emily Rothrum |author2=Elizabeth A. T. Smith |author3=Jenni Sorkin |author4=Anne Middleton Wagner |author5=Paul Schimmel |isbn=978-88-572-3065-8 |location=Milan |publisher=Skira |pages=226 |oclc=932125281}}
• [https://www.kunstmuseum.de/en/exhibition/art-textiles-fabric-as-material-and-concept-in-modern-art-from-klimt-to-the-present/ Art & Textiles – Fabric as Material and Concept in Modern Art], Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2013){{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/861609070 |title=Art & textiles: fabric as material and concept in modern art from Klimt to the present |date=2013 |editor1=Markus Brüderlin |editor2=Hartmut Böhme |translator=Amy Klement |isbn=978-3-7757-3627-5 |location=Ostfildern |publisher=Hatje Cantz |oclc=861609070}}

Gomes came to international attention after her inclusion in the 56th Venice Biennale, curated by Okwui Enwezor. In the fall of 2022, Gomes presented a major solo show in New York. The New York Times art critic Jillian Steinhauer expressed her views on the show in early January 2023.{{Cite news |last=Langlois |first=Jill |date=2020-08-28 |title=Fabrics With Powerful Stories to Tell |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/arts/design/sonia-gomes-brazil-art.html |access-date=2023-02-14 |issn=0362-4331}}

"If Gomes has a central theme, that may be it: a sense of willful connection, a determination to use what’s on hand to forge something unexpectedly beautiful."{{Cite news |last=Times |first=The New York |date=2022-10-05 |title=Art We Saw This Fall |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/arts/art-we-saw-this-fall.html |access-date=2023-02-14 |issn=0362-4331}}

• Museum of Modern Art{{Cite web |date=2023 |title=208 History into Being |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/galleries/5537 |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=MoMa}}
• Pérez Art Museum Miami{{Cite web |title=Pérez Art Museum Miami Announces New Acquisitions by Thirteen Artists for Permanent Collection • Pérez Art Museum Miami |url=https://www.pamm.org/en/press/perez-art-museum-miami-announces-new-acquisitions-by-thirteen-artists-for-permanent-collection/ |access-date=2023-02-14 |website=Pérez Art Museum Miami |language=en-US}}
• National Gallery of Art, Washington DC{{Cite web |title=Acquisition: Sonia Gomes |url=https://www.nga.gov/press/acquisitions/2022/sonia-gomes.html |access-date=2023-02-14 |website=www.nga.gov}}
• Rubell Family Collection
• San Antonio Museum of Art
• Solomon R. Guggenheim
• Tate Modern, London
• Centre Pompidou, Paris
• Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Argentina
• Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo
• Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
• Museu de Arte de São Paulo
• Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
• Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain
• Muzeum Susch, Switzerland

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Category:1948 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century Brazilian women artists

Category:21st-century Brazilian women artists

Category:Mixed-media artists

Category:Brazilian contemporary artists

Category:People from Minas Gerais