Nádia Taquary

n. Salvador, BR (1967)

Nádia Taquary has a degree in Literature from UCSAL and a postgraduate degree in Education, Aesthetics, Semiotics and Culture from UFBA. In her research, she delves into Afro-Brazilian traditions and sacred practices, emphasizing the strong presence of black female protagonism in Brazil and its ancestral heritage. Her poetics are expressed in sculptures, installations and video installations, as symbols of identity, religiosity, female empowerment and freedom. Her research covers the strength and history of Afro-Brazilian jewelry and questions of ancestry, focused on female protagonism.

In 2024, Nádia will be present at the 24th Sydney Biennial, in Australia, in addition to presenting, at the Rio Art Museum (MAR), her solo exhibition “Ònà Irin: caminho de ferro”. Her works are permanently part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, MAM-BA (Salvador, Brazil); the Pinacoteca de São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil); Pérez Art Museum Miami – PAAM (Miami, USA); Rio Art Museum – MAR (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil); Musem of Arts and Design – MAD (New York, USA), the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art – ISLAA (New York, USA) and Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum.

"The Yabás refer to the female orixás of the Yoruban pantheon such as Yemanjá, Oxum, Yansã and a Yaô, when one is on the way to becoming a Yabá. I bring Yoruba mythology about these deities, great mothers and a beginner to once again talk about the important presence of this feminine generator and maintainer in society and in the ordering of worlds."

Nadia Taquary

"They are the ancestry, the before, the here and now and the continuity of those who will come anchored in those who have already been.In this “Yabás series” I highlight the vital importance that black women had in the construction of the socioeconomic structure in Brazil at colonial times, and their overcoming, affirmation, and empowerment in the face of unfavorable contexts of slavery and a sexist society."

Nadia Taquary

"The four Yabás (great ancestral mothers) and a Yaô (initiated daughter) presented in my work as long bronze sculptures with 100 kg and 2.20m in height form a set of five sculptures, representing the female power Oxum, Yansã, Yemanjá, and Nanã."

Nadia Taquary

“I chose this theme after an immersion in what the great ancestral mothers, the Ajés Ìyàmìs, represent and the need to deconstruct a history imposed by colonialism and patriarchy that prevented us from accessing understandings that would empower us as a generating feminine power than you want.”

Nadia Taquary

“I bring this universe using feathers, scales, symbolizing the collective in one body, like the Mulher Pássaro and the Mulher Peixe, coming blood red, representing the menstrual flow, the continuous transformation, life itself, and the great gourd of existence, origin from where the world and everything in it come into existence. The pencas are the power to transmute a cruel history and generate freedom”

Nadia Taquary