Solange Pessoa

A major new presentation by one of Brazil's most renowned living sculptors

PREVIEW Friday 9 May, 7 to 9pm
Open Wednesdays to Sundays 

Solange Pessoa (b.1961 Ferros Belo Horizonte, Brazil) is one of Brazil’s most renowned living sculptors. This solo exhibition at Tramway, her first major presentation in a UK institution, consists of large-scale sculptural forms made from ceramic, bronze and Hebridean fleece, produced between Glasgow and Minas Gerais, Brazil.

The exhibition brings together constellations of organic materials, referencing landscapes, archaeology and historical narratives from both Brazil and Scotland. A series of sculptures will be realised in several clusters across the vast gallery space, inspired by diverse materials and forms ranging from seedpods, nests, plant-life, erratic boulders and Scottish bronze age standing stones, to large-scale sculptures created from raw sheep’s wool. 

Speaking to the colonial, agricultural, archaeological and material histories that have shaped the landscape of both Brazil and Scotland, this new body of sculptures will manifest as an ecological, visceral and sometimes otherworldly landscape unfolding across the gallery floor, creating connections that span the prehistoric past to the present ecological crisis.

Part of the British Council UK-Brazil Season of Culture
Solange Pessoa’s exhibition is generously supported by The Henry Moore Foundation

More about Solange

Solange Pessoa (b.1961, Ferros, Brazil) lives and works in Belo Horizonte.  

Her selected solo institutional exhibitions include Solange Pessoa, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2023); Longilonge, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa (2019); Metaflor-Metaflora, Museu Mineiro, Belo Horizonte (2013); Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2008); Museu da Inconfidência, Ouro Preto (2000); Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte (1995); and Centro Cultural São Paulo (1992).

Pessoa has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Brazil and abroad including Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles, The Barbican Center, London (2024); Fondation Cartier pour L’Art Contemporain, Triennale Milano, Milan (2024); The 59th International Biennale di Venezia – The Milk of Dreams, Venice (2022); Reclaim the Earth, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2022); Living Worlds, Fondation Cartier, Lille (2022); Elementos Vitales: Ana Mendieta in Oaxaca, OA Juarez, Oaxaca (2021); This Morning, in the Sweet Torpor of the Great Forest, is Like Every Morning in the World, SALT, Renens (2020); Invenção de Origem, Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo (2018); La Fin de Babylone - Mich Wunder, dass ich so Fröhlich bin, Koln Skulptur #9, Cologne (2017); New Shamans (2016), High Anxiety (2016), and No Man’s Land: Women Artists (2015), Rubell Family Collection, Miami; Arte e Patrimônio, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro (2014); Arqueologia das Terras Altas, 4th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre (2003) Mostra do Redescobrimento, CAPS Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux (2001); Heranças Contemporâneas (1999) and Encontros e Tendências (1993), Museu de Arte Contemporânea de São Paulo, No Existen los Limites, Hospital Matarazzo, São Paulo (1996).