Mestre Didi: Spiritual Form
Mestre Didi: Spiritual Form
Examine over 30 selections from the late Afro-Brazilian sculptor Mestre Didi, and his far-reaching spiritual and artistic legacy.
FREE
El Museo del Barrio
March 13, 2025 to July 13, 2025
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Exhibition Details

This landmark monographic exhibition explores the work of the late Afro-Brazilian sculptor, writer, cultural advocate and spiritual leader Mestre Didi (Salvador, Bahia, 1917-2013).

As the first major U.S. museum exhibition of Didi’s work in 25 years, these selections highlight Mestre Didi’s spiritually evocative and formally imaginative sculptures and present new interpretations of his symbolic repertoire.

Additional Details

Over the course of his career, from the 1960s until the 2010s, Mestre Didi was a visionary emissary for Candomblé, an Afro-diasporic religion which developed in Brazil as formerly enslaved Africans handed down their Yoruba spiritual practices. He was perhaps the first artist to reimagine Candomblé ritual objects as artworks in their own right.

Location

El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Avenue (at 104th Street)
New York, NY 10029

Image: Detail of Estampa Orixás (Orishas Pattern), 2024. Installation with silkscreened textiles. Courtesy of the artist.