Grounded in material aesthetics the Brazilian-born artist Alexandre da Cunha (b.1969) creates monumentally scaled sculpture and playfully constructed wall-mounted work using metamorphosed every day and found objects. Given their renewed possibility and playing with the visual language of art historical movements such as Arte Povera and Tropicália, da Cunha’s sculptures inspire lush potential, elevating our everyday encounters with ordinary materials to sociocultural events.

da Cunha has referred to his practice as ‘pointing’ as opposed to ‘making’. For da Cunha, the idea of ‘pointing’ is akin to the work of a theatre director activating different elements – which are like actors – creating new and exciting interactions and possibilities. By ‘pointing’ at existing objects in plain sight, da Cunha highlights heretofore unseen and unexpected meaning within the objects he chooses. Often imbued with a keen sense of humor and visual punning, da Cunha’s work tells a continuously unfolding story; a tale filled with clever quips and colorful anecdotes of his travels, observations, encounters, and environments. A mop becomes a richly hued hanging tapestry, a suite of nail files transforms into a tropical geometric abstraction, a walking stick reveals itself as a brilliantly chromatic perch for a passing bird.