Artists Ayrson Heráclito and Nádia Taquary are participating in the exhibition Mestre Didi: Spiritual Form, on view at El Museo del Barrio, in New York.

Rodrigo Moura, the museum’s chief curator, together with guest curators Ayrson Heráclito and Chloë Courtney, have developed this major panoramic exhibition exploring the work and legacy of the Afro-Brazilian sculptor, writer, cultural activist, and spiritual leader Mestre Didi (Salvador, Bahia, 1917–2013). The exhibition brings together over 30 sculptures that combine traditional materials, forms, and symbols of the orixás—deities of Candomblé—to create a modern sculptural language.

The exhibition also contextualises Mestre Didi’s practice by including significant works by contemporary artists such as Emanoel Araújo, Jorge dos Anjos, Agnaldo Manoel dos Santos, Aurelino dos Santos, Ayrson Heráclito, Goya Lopes, Antonio Oloxedê, Abdias Nascimento, Arlete Soares, Nádia Taquary, and Rubem Valentim. The shared interest of these artists in African visual languages extends from 20th-century modernisms to the ongoing innovation of contemporary diasporic Black aesthetics.

Heráclito presents a sculpture from his Juntó series, while Taquary exhibits a sculptural object from her Dinkas Orixás series.

Mestre Didi: Spiritual Form will be on view until July.

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