Sonia Gomes
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Sonia Gomes is a Brazilian artist celebrated for her richly textured sculptural works that incorporate fabric, thread, wire, and found materials, often twisting and binding these elements into organic, expressive forms. Her practice is deeply informed by her Afro-Brazilian heritage, spirituality, and the traditions of Candomblé, as well as her personal history growing up in Caetanópolis, a textile-producing town in Minas Gerais. Though she came to art later in life, Gomes has gained international acclaim for works that explore themes of identity, memory, resistance, and transformation.
Artists in conversation
El Anatsui
El Anatsui similarly transforms found and discarded materials into large scale sculptural works that carry deep cultural and spiritual resonance rooted in African heritage and identity.
Judith Scott
Judith Scott wrapped and bound found objects in fiber and thread to create dense cocooned sculptural forms that share Gomes's obsessive materiality and organic expressive quality.
Senga Nengudi
Senga Nengudi stretches and manipulates nylon mesh and fabric into body referencing sculptural installations that echo Gomes's use of textile to evoke the human figure and lived experience.
Artists who inspired them
Arthur Bispo do Rosário
Bispo do Rosário's obsessive embroidering and assemblage of found objects driven by spiritual vision is widely cited as a foundational reference for Gomes's own fiber based and spiritually charged practice.
Lygia Clark
Lygia Clark's exploration of sensory and bodily engagement through malleable organic forms influenced Gomes's understanding of sculpture as an embodied and relational experience.
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois's use of fabric and thread to process memory trauma and the body provided a powerful conceptual model for Gomes's own textile based explorations of identity and personal history.