A Work of Art: "The Secret Matrices of Creation" (2025)
Oil on linen by Brazilian artist Gustavo Nazareno
Gustavo Nazareno’s The Secret Matrices of Creation is currently showing at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora’s Unbound: Art, Blackness, & the Universe until August 16th.
I wish I was in the SF Bay Area to see Nazareno’s work in person. Nazareno often works in oil, graphite and charcoal to create hyperrealist yet mythic art. Like this mysterious imagining of the Orishas shrouded in fabric and light, he often explores Afro-Brazilian spiritual practices like Candomblé. “Nazareno’s family has spiritual roots in the Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda; its ceremonies and spiritual practices gave Nazareno the space and grounding to begin his work as an artist.”1 Even virtually, the triptych painting feels so ominous and refreshingly haunting. From photos of its current installation at the museum, it looks like this work covers an entire wall. Viewers might have the experience of standing and gazing alongside Nazareno’s Orishas.
Unbound is curated by MoAD’s Chief of Curatorial Affairs and Public Programs, Key Jo Lee and asks “[w]hat if we approached Blackness with the same awe and curiosity we reserve for the cosmos?”2