Maria Nepomuceno: Roda das encantadas

Sikkema Jenkins & Co. is pleased to announce Roda das encantadas, a solo exhibition of new works by multi-media artist Maria Nepomuceno. This is the artist’s second solo presentation at the gallery and will be on view January 11 through February 12.

Maria Nepomuceno creates vibrant sculptures and installations that evoke the nature of organic forms. Utilizing a wide range of materials—including rope, beads, ceramics, gourds, wood, and woven carnauba (palm) straw—her work draws upon traditional methods of Brazilian craftsmanship, as well as her own personal techniques of braiding and weaving. The spiral form is integral to Nepomuceno’s work, in both a functional and spiritual sense. Drawing from a central point of origin, the spiral permutations expand outwards, suggesting the infinite movement of time and a vital energy of spirit. Rich colors pass and interweave smoothly into one another, imbuing her sculptures with a shimmering, pulsating quality: alive, and drawing in breath.

The works featured in Roda das encantadas reflect the spatial and psychological conditions that have come to define the last two years. Her window sculptures represent a sense of looking outward, from the isolation of quarantine to the freedom of the exterior world. Woven ropes and straw forms unfurl around one another, and extend through the frame into the viewer’s space. From this outward growth evolves her floor and wall installations: freely and vibrantly occupying space. The central work, sharing the title Roda das encantadas, was inspired by a group of women Nepomuceno connected with during the pandemic. Figurative and abstract female forms stand within an intricate installation of rugs, baskets, and globes, their arms transforming into ropes and integrating them within the sculpture. They are enchanted creatures that make up the circle of magic, gathering to celebrate life amidst a precarious and uncertain global moment.  Together, her installations represent a tactile, chromatic microcosm of our world, where plants, animals, humans, and abstract life can thrive.