On August 28, Jill Laglois published a text about the artist Sonia Gomes on The New York Times. On Fabric With Powerful Stories to Tell: The Afro-Brazilian sculptor Sonia Gomes, in a debut U.S. show, gives materials new life — as they have given her life new balance, Laglois tells us about Gomes’ creative process and trajectory, including how she left a career as a lawyer to attend, at 45, an art school. We also get to know more about her childhood:
“It took Ms. Gomes most of her life to realize that she had always been an artist. As a young girl growing up in Caetanópolis, a small town once known as a manufacturing hub for textiles, she liked to deconstruct her clothes and turn them into something different, using leftover fabric and found materials to make her own jewelry”.
Laglois also comments on certain expectations Gomes had to deal with:
“As a Black woman, Ms. Gomes says she is regularly expected to tell a certain story with her art and to follow what others think Black art should be. But she refuses to be pigeonholed as an activist artist or to have her work branded as handicrafts, a term often used to diminish art made by artists who belong to marginalized groups”.
The ending of the text is marked by a strong statement:
“‘Art, for me, was born through this necessity for expression’, she said. ‘Now, I feel like I have a voice'”.
To read the full article, click here.