For over four decades, Alberto Pitta has developed a visual practice that weaves together Afro-Brazilian knowledge systems, spirituality, and graphic experimentation. Fabric—his primary medium—serves as a platform for non-hegemonic education, forging connections between art, history, and collective experience. This relationship is deeply rooted in his life story and was inherited as a familial legacy. The son of Mãe Santinha de Oyá—spiritual leader, educator, embroideress, and founder of Ilê Axé Oyá (a Candomblé temple) in the Pirajá neighbourhood of Salvador—Pitta was raised within the artistic and existential practices of Candomblé. Since the 1980s, his work has established a distinctive visual language within Bahia’s Black Carnival, shaped by his designs for costumes and prints for iconic Afro-Brazilian Carnival groups such as Ilê Aiyê (Band’Aiyê), Olodum, Filhos de Gandhy, Oba Laiyê, and the Afoxé Filhos do Congo. Beyond Carnival, Pitta’s work transcends the boundaries of textile design. Grounded in silkscreen printing, his practice engages with the field of contemporary art, extending painting and sculptural experimentation. His fabrics, situated between ritual and the art of memory, are part of a broader visual repertoire that may be described as Afro-Atlantic, in which patterns, symbols, and gestures sustain dialogues between Brazil, Africa, and their diasporas. His creative process unfolds as a shared practice, in which the weaving of fabric interlaces with the lives of the communities who wear it, whether in his studio, in the Afro-Brazilian Carnival groups that parade through the streets of Salvador, or within gallery spaces. In this process, Pitta’s fabrics and stories continue to speak—alive, in motion, adorning bodies, and crossing time.

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION:

6 Screen printed cotton fabrics, in chronological order: Olodum, Tropicalism (1994), 340 × 146 cm; Afoxé Filhos do Congo, Black, independence and freedom in Afoxé (2011), 520 × 150 cm; Cortejo Afro, Ogum (2013), 688 × 150 cm; Commanches do Pelô (2014), 768 × 156 cm; Cortejo Afro (2014), 411 × 160 cm; Afoxé Filhos do Congo (2018), 538 × 153 cm; Afoxé Filhos do Congo (2019), 480 × 150 cm; Ilê Aiyê, Botswana (2020), 536 × 160 cm; Afoxé Filhos do Congo (2025), 512 × 150 cm; Afoxé Filhos do Congo, Nelson Maleiro (2025), 1008 × 152 cm; Olodum, The Treasures of Tutankhamun (2025),1080 × 140 cm; All courtesy of the artist and Nara Roesler