Sônia Gomes Finds Ancestral Echo in Maya Angelou Verse for MASP and Casa de Vidro Exhibition

While finishing a piece for her current exhibition, Sônia Gomes encountered a structural issue with a wooden cut that prevented the work from standing. Rising to observe it, the phrase "Ainda assim me levanto" (Still I Rise) came to her as a whisper, which she later discovered was a verse from American poet and activist Maya Angelou. This coincidence led her to title the work "Eu me levanto" and the broader exhibition "Ainda assim me levanto," on view simultaneously at MASP and Casa de Vidro—both buildings designed by Lina Bo Bardi—until March 2019. This marks the first partnership between the two institutions, featuring an annual simultaneous show. The exhibition, curated by Amanda Carneiro in her first MASP curation, presents a new phase for Gomes, incorporating found tree trunks from riverbanks in her native Minas Gerais, which she manipulates with fabrics in varied ways. Gomes rejects labels like naïve or popular artist, attributing them to racial bias, and emphasizes her work's political body without explicit militancy.