Galería Elba Benítez

The Galería Elba Benítez is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition by artist Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, entitled Thororo nasipe re u no wawe wawe [La laguna donde cantan los sapos], and opening on May 26th, 2022.

Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe (Sheroana, Venezuela, 1971) — a self-taught artist from the indigenous Yanomami community of the Amazonian region that lies between Venezuela and Brazil — creates works on paper that combine the techniques of drawing, painting and printmaking with more performative actions derived from ceremonial body painting rituals. Fabricating his own paper from local plants in the Upper Orinoco River basin and using fat-based inks and natural pigments, the artist develops repetitive patterns of abstracted forms that reference the natural environment, the daily life and the symbolic cosmogonies of the Yanomami. For Hakihiiwe, these drawings, in addition to their presence as autonomous art works, are a way to preserve the endangered visual, natural and symbolic culture of his people.

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