Artist: Leonardo Ramadinha

Current City: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Item Details: 67.5" x 32" Series of 5 Giclée Prints, Framed, 2008–2020, Unique

50% of the proceeds from this piece will be directed to Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB). SoMad has united a community of artists and activists, embracing the power of art to affect social change, working to honor Latinx lives and territories, and bringing attention to those fighting for the Earth's survival. FOGO! features artists originating from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Puerto Rico. This exhibition celebrates the artists’ heritage and culturally-informed stylistic expressions.

Leonardo Ramadinha (Brazilian, b.1977) explores the Afro-Brazilian religion, Umbanda, invoking Exu, the messenger who exists between physical and spiritual planes. Ramadinha, a practitioner of the religion, has received special permissions to enter the Sacred Space of Umbanda and has been documenting the experience for nearly 15 years. Part of the bigger series Laróye, Exu Comes First is a grouping of photographs deeply connected through subject, creating an intimate experience cloaked in mystery which does not intend to reveal the hidden, but instead to intensify it. The images, placed side by side, lend themselves to poetic interpretation. They create a lyrical interlude with religion, allowing the work to move between documentation and art. Featuring the space and the physical bodies of the participants, the surrender to the Sacred and the extreme ecstasy of trance allows the audience to view the experience of the inexplicable.

Ramadinha has participated in collective and individual exhibitions in Brazil, Argentina, USA, Colombia, Germany and Slovenia. In 2000, he was a recipient of the Rio Jovem Artista Award. In 2003, he participated in the Encuentros Abiertos, a festival affiliated with the Festival da Luz, and was selected by the Centro Cultural da Recoleta in Buenos Aires for a solo show. In 2007, he was selected by the Wooloo Independent Curator Program for the Urban Space project with exhibitions at the New Life Shop Gallery in Berlin; OI Futuro, in Rio de Janeiro and FotoPub - International Photo Festival Slovenia. In October 2013, he participated in the collective of Brazilian artists Brazil am Main, at the Galerie Söffing in Frankfurt, Germany, during the Frankfurt Book Fair. He is coordinator of the Foto Contemporânea school in Rio de Janeiro.

SoMad Chats: Hannah