RIO DE JANEIRO.- Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel presents esp韗ito jardim humana, Tad醩k韆’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition brings together a new body of work. Grounded in memory and imagination, the works contribute to the construction of the artist’s cosmology, in which abstract forms, organic elements, and recurring figures give shape to a cast of nonhuman characters.
In paintings on canvas and works made on sculptural supports in leather paper, the artist develops a vocabulary of forms that evokes a universe inhabited by presences, lending a kind of animism to abstract forms, as though beings associated with the animal and vegetal worlds—among them insects, butterflies, and serpents—were taking shape within them. Branches, twigs, fruits, liquids, and other sculptural forms extend this vocabulary into space, where what is suggested in the paintings acquires body and volume. Across surfaces, reliefs, and volumes, these elements traverse the boundaries between painting and sculpture, composing a field in which form, matter, and image converge.
esp韗ito jardim humana also marks a subtle shift in Tad醩k韆’s recent practice, with the emergence of areas of white and exposed support. Visible in the cascas and in passages where the paint has been scraped away, these areas of emptiness become active compositional elements, introducing intervals of light and openness that alter the rhythm and atmosphere of the works. Around this core, sculptures combine organic matter, found objects, liquids, and elements made by the artist herself, bringing together materials that retain traces of growth, use, and transformation.
The different offshoots of Tad醩k韆’s work share a throughline in her affinity with drawing. Simultaneously markings and erasures, her traces in dry pastels, colored pencil, pen or nail polish create graphic tangles that evoke fluttering beings without rendering them recognizable. The torn edges of her paper supports produce a sense of continuity, like a loose-leaf book with its pages in environing space, fusing word and image. In reliefs made of folded sheets and sculptures, the artist declares an emphasis on volume and the distribution of full-bodied forms in space. These compositions reveal beings and structures that seem caught in the midst of mutation. Her cattail or reed sculptures balance emptiness, transparency and presence in intertwined constellations. In videos and photographs that Tad醩k韆 calls “apparitions”, actions of disguising and transforming the depicted bodies place domestic and familiar environments in a restless state.
Among her solo exhibitions are brincando animada: travesti mariposa centopeia / animated play: travesti moth centipede, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, D黶seldorf, Germany (2025); jour nuit papillon / day night butterfly, Mus閑 d’Art Contemporain de la Haute-Vienne – Ch鈚eau de Rochechouart, Rochechouart, France (2025); Tad醩k韆 and Ana Cl醬dia Almeida: A Joyner/Giuffrida Visiting Artists Program, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, USA (2024); Projects: Tad醩k韆, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (2024); As Parecidas, Galeria Madragoa, Lisboa, Portugal (2023); rara ocellet, Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona, Spain (2023) e Noite dia, Sé Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil (2022). Tad醩k韆 was a highlight in the 35th Bienal de S鉶 Paulo – Coreografias do imposs韛el (2023) and has also taken part in the group shows Hist髍ias LGBTQIA+, MASP – Museu de Arte de S鉶 Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, S鉶 Paulo, Brazil (2024); One Becomes Many, Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, USA (2024);The Disagreement: A Theatre of Statements, Neue Kunstverein Wien, Vienna, Austria (2024); Direito forma, Galeria Fonte – Institut Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil (2023) 37 Panorama da Arte Brasileira – Sob as cinzas, brasa, MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2023); Dos Brasis, SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo, Brazil (2023); The Silence of Tired Tongues, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2022) e Eros Rising: Visions of the Erotic in Latin American Art, ISLAA – Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, New York, USA (2022).
The artist has works in important public collections, such as MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; Tate Collection, London, UK; Kunstsammlung Nordrheim-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany; Pinacoteca do Estado de S鉶 Paulo, S鉶 Paulo, Brazil; Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil;MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de S鉶 Paulo, S鉶 Paulo, Brazil; MAR – Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Kadist Foundation, Paris, France, The Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, USA; Fundaci髇 Arco Madrid, Madrid, Spain; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, USA; Fundaci髇 Canaria para el Desarrollo da la Pintura , Las Palmas, Spain; ISLAA – Institute for Studies on Latin American Art and Instituto Cultural 莂r, S鉶 Paulo, Brazil.
