Born in State of Minas Gerais, Brazil (b. 1948)

Sonia Gomes

Sol maior2023

Sequins, beads, various fabrics on galvanized wire and iron rebar
© Sonia Gomes

Sonia Gomes was born and raised in a small town in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, that was once known as an industrial hub for textiles. As a child, she enjoyed deconstructing and reassembling her clothes. She also used leftover fabric and found materials to make her own jewelry. After her career as a lawyer, she enrolled in the Guignard School of Art in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, at age forty-five. She went on to develop a sculptural and painting practice that involves stretching, wrapping, stuffing, and sewing multicolored fabrics into varying shapes. Sol maior is a prime example of Gomes’s experimentation with abstract, biomorphic, and coiled arrangements of various fabrics, sequins, and beads on a wire and iron support.

Sonia Gomes at her studio in São Paulo, Brazil. Photo by Gabriela Portilho for The New York Times.

“Art, for me, was born through this necessity for expression. Now, I feel like I have a voice.”

—Sonia Gomes