Maria Nepomuceno pushes ancient traditions and complex craft techniques into a wholly contemporary engagement with space and structure, form and concept. Displaying a characteristically dynamic approach to form, the work on view expands upon the Rio de Janeiro-based artist’s methods of rope weaving and straw braiding, in which pre-existing and found elements such as branches, twigs, seed pods and playful ceramic forms merge with the organic forms of the sculptures. Nepomuceno’s works are chromatically, culturally and metaphorically rich, suggesting animals, plants, the human body and landscapes ranging from the microscopic to the macroscopic. That the sculptures appear anthropomorphic and organic is essential to a reading of the work: the spiraling central to Nepomuceno’s process relates to the spirals occurring naturally throughout the universe, giving shape to entire galaxies as well as the blueprint for existence, DNA.

The results are intended to harness the extended time of their making while simultaneously inviting the viewer to pause, draw close and engage with complex cycles of energy and creation.

About the artist

Maria Nepomuceno was born in 1976 in Rio de Janeiro, where she continues to live and work. Maria Nepomuceno: Refloresta! is currently on view at The Portico Library in Manchester, UK (until 22 November 2021). Her work has been exhibited at institutions such as Stavanger Art Museum; Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro; Turner Contemporary, Margate; Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa; Auckland Art Gallery, USA; Daejeon Museum of Art, South Korea; Hudson Valley Center of Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York, USA and MFA, Boston, USA. Works by the artist are included in the collections of Museu de Arte da Bahia; MFA Boston, USA; Guggenheim Museum, USA; Pérez Art Museum Miami, USA; Rubell Museum, USA, among others.