Maria Nepomuceno’s Mixed-Media Sculptures Writhe with Ancient Symbolism
“Untitled” (2025), ceramics, strings, necklace beads, and wood, 39 3/8 x 34 5/8 x 11 3/4 inches. All images courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Malloy Jenkins, New York, shared with permission
Maria Nepomuceno’s Mixed-Media Sculptures Writhe with Ancient Symbolism
August 22, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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Through millennia of artistic expression and within the natural world, the ubiquitous spiral continues to mesmerize. In ancient traditions, the form often represents cycles. The triskele, for example, consists of three interlocking spirals thought to symbolize death, life, and rebirth or the triad of mind, body, and spirit. Spirals also emerge naturally in seashells and plants, sometimes linked to the concept of the golden mean, also known as the “divine ratio.”
For Maria Nepomuceno, the spiral’s occurrence in nature—along with its spiritual significance relating to time and energy in perpetual flow—underpins a vibrant multimedia practice. Her forthcoming exhibition, Cunhó, which opens next month at Sikkema Malloy Jenkins, emphasizes abundance. Iconographic references to female anatomy, jars, ceramic vessels, baskets, and seashells—the latter of which are emblematic of fertility and wealth—emphasize flourishing interactions and growth.
“Abraçaço” (2025), strings, necklace beads, straw, ceramics, resin, and wood, 59 x 50 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches
A made-up word, Cunhó takes its title from a nickname Nepomuceno’s mother gave to her. Employing traditional Brazilian craftsmanship, the artist creates undulating forms that hang on the wall or nestle into the juncture where perpendicular surfaces meet. Her sculptures are simultaneously soft and firm, meandering and structured. From a distance, they can be alternately read like magnified, amorphous, biological cells or what the gallery describes as vast “macrocosmic landscapes.”
Whorling beaded and woven forms envelop pearlescent bottle gourds or evoke tropical flowers with prominent stamens. In “Abraçaço,” for example, which in Portuguese means “hug” or “embrace,” a faceless female figure with a serpentine tongue encircles a large white shell and other amorphous shapes with long, slender arms. Other pieces, like “Mar Amor,” evoke an ouroboros, an ancient symbol usually consisting of a snake or dragon eating its own tail, which represents self-creation, interconnection, and eternal cycles.
Incorporating ceramics, wood, beads, straw, string, and other found materials, Nepomuceno merges the organic and inorganic in shapeshifting pieces that represent a continuous cycle of reproduction, nourishment, plenitude, and care.
Cunhó runs from September 2 to October 11 in New York City. Explore more by the artist on Instagram.
Detail of “Abraçaço”
“Mar Amor” (2025), strings, necklace beads, resin, and wood, 42 1/2 x 41 3/8 x 9 7/8 inches
“Planta desejo” (2025), wood, straw, necklace beads, resin, string, and ceramic, 74 3/4 x 68 7/8 x 65 inches
Detail of “Planta desejo”
“Lingua Espiral” (2025), string, beads, wood, glass, fabric, paint, and ceramics, 59 x 65 x 13 3/4 inches
“Untitled” (2025), necklace beads, straw, ceramic, and resin, 35 3/8 x 27 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
“Untitled” (2025), strings, necklace beads, wood, paper, and resin, 51 1/8 x 35 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches
“Untitled” (2025), braided straw, necklace beads, ceramics, and resin, 55 1/8 x 45 1/4 x 23 5/8 inches
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