Mendes Wood DM is pleased to present Sonia Gomes's first solo exhibition in Paris _..._vivem no compasso do sol. The exhibition features works from Gomes's wide, encompassing production and includes floor, hanging, and wall textile sculptures alongside bronzes, collages, and drawings.

The title of the show, borrowed from an essay by curator and researcher Yina Jiménez, roughly translates to 'living in the tempo of the sun' and relates to a conceptual framework Jiménez uses to contextualize the artist's creative channel. Reflecting on this statement sparked Gomes to recognize a recurring circular motion in her works, both aesthetically, as in the __Trouxa______and __Pendente______series, and poetically, given the circulatory material lifespans inherent to her practice.

Working primarily with textiles as a medium, the artist chooses materials that bring with them colours, textures, trims, and indefinable sets of memories. Each fabric, article of clothing, and accessory that arrives in her studio, often rendered from fabrics found by or gifted to the artist, has travelled its path, was dressed, stored, and altered before undergoing a final transformation by Gomes's hands. It is indeed the orbit of a new cycle granting each piece the possibility of a different existence.

Compasso do Sol____(2024) is also the title of the first piece the artist produced for the exhibition. The work combines elements of drawing, collage, stitching,and binding onto a canvas with a cutout where the artist placed a handmade lace sent to her studio. Although powerful at first glance, to appreciate it properly requires one to move towards and away to discover, but not distinguish, each single creation. Its energy is harnessed from vinyl paint, acrylic marker, and a watercolour poetically inserted onto the linen surface. The work served as the guiding star to the others Gomes created for her Paris show. The artist, who traditionally has not favoured naming individual pieces, felt moved to continue naming other pieces that reference the sky, including Eclipse, Alvorada [dawn], and Parélio [parelius](all 2024), in a drawing series that evokes solar spectacles. Whilst the title to Anjo caído [Fallen angel](2024) from the __Tear [loom]______series describes the mythologies ascribed to angels cast out of heaven, Gomes's metaphysical representation reveals an intricate textile piece cast in a loom frame combining stitching, binding, various fabrics, and ropes.

Shifting her gaze has also driven Gomes to experiment with new ideas. Unveiled at the Paris exhibition are two new works (both Untitled__,__ 2024) combining stitching, binding, and various fabrics on bronze – marking the first time the material is employed by the artist. Sedimentary rocks brought to her studio from the state of Piauí, in the northeast region of Brazil, served as the basis for these sculptures. The rock used as a mould is formed by the joining together of numerous small rocks. The casting follows the original shape of the matrix, through which Gomes could explore the openings that cross the rock from one side to the other, make the bindings and lay the fabrics on the bronze. Such beautiful surprises echo the artist's ethos that her work only exists because the material finds its course to her studio.

Also revisiting an ongoing series, the imposing Aurora (from the Pendente series), 2024, combines stitching and bindings with fabrics, ropes, with freshwater pearls, and has, this time, a different counterplay of balance than previous examples from this body of work. Similarly, novel works from the __Trouxa______series presented in Paris include a coral-like texture Gomes developed after discovering traditional tie-dye patterns from artisan communities in Nepal. Once again, the amalgamation of references, or 'memories,' as puts it, are imparted into each creation following her instinctive gestures.

Finally, a group of works from the artist's latest series __meu amarelo é ouro [my yellow is gold],______combining drawings with threads and gold leaf inserts, present a radiant glimpse into possible new pathways for Gomes. A constellation of ideas that illuminate a practice as deeply consistent as evolving and reference the cosmology of an artist whose brilliant journey is ever interwoven with the powerful stories and affections stored in her creations. __...vivem no compasso do sol______is accompanied by a new essay written by Anne Lafont.

Sonia Gomes is currently on view in the 60^th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia as part of the group exhibition __With My Eyes______presented by The Holy See Pavilion. Additionally, the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art has recently unveiled Um poema desenhado (A Drawn Poem) an artist's book by Sonia Gomes, bringing together seventeen multilayered drawn, painted, and cut-out collages created by the artist in the spring and summer of 2023. Her works were re-created for this edition by silkscreen and fine offset printing, hand-stitching, and both hand and machine paper-cutting, with the results sewn into a hand-bound volume covered in 'chita', a typical Brazilian fabric.

Press release courtesy Mendes Wood DM