SAO PAULO.- Central, in partnership with Eliana Finkelstein, presents the group exhibition "Sopra a ave-do- paraíso, voa longe a viúva negra,"on view now on the first floor and mezzanine of the Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil de São Paulo (IABsp).
Invited by Eliana and Fernanda Resstom, founder and director of Central, Galciani Neves curates the exhibition, which brings together works by more than 20 artists in dialogue with Black Widow (1948) by Alexander Calder (1898–1976). The mobile, donated by the artist to IABsp, is part of the institute’s collection and, like the building itself, is listed as cultural heritage by IPHAN.
“The history of an artwork accumulates records of the times it has been exhibited, the texts written about it, and the experiences and events generated by its presence and circulation. These reverberations otfen place the work in an expanded present, continuously updating it and surprising us. Acknowledging that all these possible and countless encounters with a work contribute to its reflection, this exhibition approaches the pieces as a kind of breath that, together with the audience and the energy of downtown São Paulo, sets Black Widow in motion— animating it with the times and sensations of the present and granting it the many ‘fugitive forms’ Sartre once described in Calder’s work,” explains the curator.
In various ways, the contemporary works featured in the exhibition are created through materials and processes that engage with non-human forms, serving as ways of thinking about the world and its inhabitants.
"Engaging with the title of the work, the artistic intentions envisioned by Calder, and the language he experimented with seemed to us a strategy for dealing with the omnipresence and movement of this piece within IABsp. It is a way of interpreting the work in light of our time and understanding how contemporary artists engage with related issues, thus creating poetic affinities with the American artist’s mobile," concludes Galciani.
Participating artists include Alice Shintani, Arivanio, Aycoobo, Bozó Bacamarte, Carmela Gross, Carmézia Emiliano, Cleiber Bane e Cleudon Sales Txana Tuin - MAHKU (Movimento dos Artistas Huni Kuin), Darks Miranda, Davi de Jesus do Nascimento, Diambe, Erika Malzoni, Gilvan Samico, Heloisa Hariadne, Kimi Nii, Liuba Wolf, Mariana Rocha, Mayawari Mehinako, Melissa Stabile de Mello, Nilda Neves, Niobe Xandó, Rayana Rayo, Selva de Carvalho, and Véio.
Eliana Finkelstein founded and directed Galeria Vermelho for 25 years, focusing on contemporary and experimental art. She launched and supported several artists from the 2000s generation of Brazilian art, such as Cinthia Marcelle, Jonathas de Andrade, and Ângela Detanico & Rafael Lain. She also worked with artists from other generations, including Rosangela Rennó, Claudia Andujar, and Carmela Gross.In 2025, she began working as an art enabler, engaging in institutional and commercial projects while researching experimental modes of art circulation.
Galciani Neves was born in Fortaleza (CE) and currently lives in São Paulo. She is a curator, professor, and researcher in the field of visual arts. She holds a master's degree (2009) and a Ph.D. in Communication and Semiotics from PUC-SP. She has worked at institutions such as the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, MuBE (Museu Brasileiro da Escultura e da Ecologia), and MON (Museu Oscar Niemeyer – Curitiba). She was a visiting professor in the Master’s Program in Arts at UFC and served as one of the artistic-pedagogical consultant-collaborators for the Biblioteca-Floresta project in Goiás (2021–2022). Currently, she is a professor in the Visual Arts program and the Postgraduate Program in Contemporary Artistic Practices at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP) and the coordinator of the IAC Research Grant at the Instituto de Arte Contemporânea.
