{"id":168445,"date":"2025-08-23T06:07:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T06:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/168445\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T06:07:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T06:07:38","slug":"maria-nepomucenos-mixed-media-sculptures-writhe-with-ancient-symbolism-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/168445\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Nepomuceno&#8217;s Mixed-Media Sculptures Writhe with Ancient Symbolism \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Golden_mean_(philosophy)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">divine ratio<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/maria.nepomuceno\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Maria Nepomuceno<\/a>, the spiral\u2019s occurrence in nature\u2014along with its spiritual significance relating to time and energy in perpetual flow\u2014underpins a vibrant multimedia practice. Her forthcoming exhibition, Cunh\u00f3, which opens next month at Sikkema Malloy Jenkins, emphasizes abundance. Iconographic references to female anatomy, jars, ceramic vessels, baskets, and seashells\u2014the latter of which are emblematic of fertility and wealth\u2014emphasize flourishing interactions and growth.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1970\" height=\"2031\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/nepomuceno-10.jpg\" alt=\"an abstract sculpture that sits on the floor and leans on the wall, with beads, wood, straw, resin, and other materials\" class=\"wp-image-460843\"  \/>\u201cAbra\u00e7a\u00e7o\u201d (2025), strings, necklace beads, straw, ceramics, resin, and wood, 59 x 50 3\/4 x 15 3\/4 inches<\/p>\n<p>A made-up word, Cunh\u00f3 takes its title from a nickname Nepomuceno\u2019s 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 \u201cmacrocosmic landscapes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whorling beaded and woven forms envelop pearlescent bottle gourds or evoke tropical flowers with prominent stamens. In \u201cAbra\u00e7a\u00e7o,\u201d for example, which in Portuguese means \u201chug\u201d or \u201cembrace,\u201d a faceless female figure with a serpentine tongue encircles a large white shell and other amorphous shapes with long, slender arms. Other pieces, like \u201cMar Amor,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Cunh\u00f3 runs from September 2 to October 11 in New York City. Explore more by the artist on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/maria.nepomuceno\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/nepomuceno-9.jpg\" alt=\"a detail of an abstract sculpture by Maria Nepomuceno that sits on the floor, made with beads, wood, straw, resin, and other materials\" class=\"wp-image-460846\"  \/>Detail of \u201cAbra\u00e7a\u00e7o\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1976\" height=\"2202\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/nepomuceno-12.jpg\" alt=\"an abstract, mostly pink sculpture by Maria Nepomuceno made of beads, resin, wood, and string\" class=\"wp-image-460845\"  \/>\u201cMar Amor\u201d (2025), strings, necklace beads, resin, and wood, 42 1\/2 x 41 3\/8 x 9 7\/8 inches<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1984\" height=\"2389\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/nepomuceno-8.jpg\" alt=\"an abstract sculpture by Maria Nepomuceno that sits on the floor and leans on the wall, with beads, wood, straw, resin, and other materials\" class=\"wp-image-460847\"  \/>\u201cPlanta desejo\u201d (2025), wood, straw, necklace beads, resin, string, and ceramic, 74 3\/4 x 68 7\/8 x 65 inches<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/nepomuceno-7.jpg\" alt=\"a detail of an abstract sculpture by Maria Nepomuceno, made with beads, wood, straw, resin, and other materials\" class=\"wp-image-460848\"  \/>Detail of \u201cPlanta desejo\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/nepomuceno-2.jpg\" alt=\"an abstract wall sculpture by Maria Nepomuceno made of beads, jars, resin, wood, and string\" class=\"wp-image-460839\"\/>\u201cLingua Espiral\u201d (2025), string, beads, wood, glass, fabric, paint, and ceramics, 59 x 65 x 13 3\/4 inches<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1544\" height=\"1162\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/nepomuceno-6.jpg\" alt=\"an abstract yellow and red sculpture by Maria Nepomuceno made of beads, resin, wood, and string\" class=\"wp-image-460842\"  \/>\u201cUntitled\u201d (2025), necklace beads, straw, ceramic, and resin, 35 3\/8 x 27 1\/2 x 11 3\/4 inches<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2482\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/nepomuceno-3.jpg\" alt=\"an abstract wall sculpture by Maria Nepomuceno made of beads, resin, wood, and string\" class=\"wp-image-460840\"  \/>\u201cUntitled\u201d (2025), strings, necklace beads, wood, paper, and resin, 51 1\/8 x 35 3\/8 x 11 3\/4 inches<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/nepomuceno-4.jpg\" alt=\"an abstract wall sculpture by Maria Nepomuceno made of beads, resin, wood, and string\" class=\"wp-image-460841\"  \/>\u201cUntitled\u201d (2025), braided straw, necklace beads, ceramics, and resin, 55 1\/8 x 45 1\/4 x 23 5\/8 inches<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do stories and artists like this matter to you?<\/strong> Become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/members\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"118516\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colossal Member<\/a> now, and support independent arts publishing.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Hide advertising<\/li>\n<li>Save your favorite articles<\/li>\n<li>Get 15% off in the <a href=\"https:\/\/colossal.shop\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colossal Shop<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Receive members-only newsletter<\/li>\n<li>Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Through millennia of artistic expression and within the natural world, the ubiquitous spiral continues to mesmerize. In ancient&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":168446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,96521,1033,171,96522,96523,1038,96524,67,132,68,96525],"class_list":{"0":"post-168445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-beads","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-maria-nepomuceno","14":"tag-mixed-media","15":"tag-sculpture","16":"tag-shells","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-weaving"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115076586190314907","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}