Known for her intensely tactile sculptural works, acclaimed Afro-Brazilian artist Sonia Gomes (b. 1948, Minas Gerais, Brazil) combines found objects, textiles, and natural materials to create evocative forms that tell stories of resilience, transformation, and everyday beauty. Drawing from Afro-Brazilian traditions and her personal history, her sculptures explore the complexities of memory, identity, and cultural heritage.

Inside the galleries, a selection of Gomes’s works spanning her career underscores her transformative approach to sculpture. Stitching, binding, and weaving, Gomes breathes new life into gifted and discarded materials, imbuing them with personal and cultural meaning. Richly textured fabric sculptures and assemblages of wood, wire, and thread carry a sense of intimacy and connection, as if the artist’s touch lingers in every fold, knot, and stitch—inviting viewers to consider the histories embedded in the materials themselves.

On Museum Hill, Gomes’s first-ever outdoor installation in the United States, Ó Abre Alas!, comprises vibrant, rhythmically charged sculptures fabricated from durable materials like paracord, fishing nets, and nautical ropes, hanging from the branches of a nearby tree. This ambitious new work marks a bold evolution in her practice, expanding her intimate, hand-stitched gestures into a sweeping dialogue with the natural world. For Gomes, this setting is an essential collaborator: “My work has a lot to do with nature, with trees, with the movement of trunks, with branches…. I like that my work has this conversation with nature.” The vibrant hues of the outdoor sculpture echo the Carnival spirit of abre-alas (Portuguese for “open wings”)—a reference to the lead float in a Brazilian Carnival parade, which paves the way for celebration. The title also nods to the 1899 composition by Chiquinha Gonzaga, a pioneering Afro-Brazilian musician who bridged classical and popular traditions. Ó Abre Alas! embodies Gomes’s exploration of cultural memory, music, and collective joy.

With Ó Abre Alas!, Gomes engages the communal creativity and spirit of transformation that define Carnival. The artist invites viewers into a world where beauty emerges from memory, movement, and the shared pulse of human experience. By bridging the handmade and the monumental, Gomes reimagines textile art as a vessel for storytelling, empowering her materials to convey narratives that resonate across cultures and geographies.


The exhibition is organized by Nora Lawrence, Executive Director, Storm King Art Center, and Larry Ossei-Mensah, Independent Curator, with Adela Goldsmith, Assistant Curator, Storm King Art Center.


This exhibition is made possible with major support by Roberta and Steven Denning and the Hazen Polsky Foundation, with lead support by Jennifer Brorsen and Richard DeMartini, Agnes Gund, Lipman Family Foundation, and Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust, with support also provided by Mendes Wood DM and Pace Gallery, and supported in part by Girlfriend Fund and The Coby Foundation.  

This project is supported through a Market New York grant awarded by Empire State Development, and I LOVE NY, New York State’s Division of Tourism.