Ernesto Neto produces sculptures and large-scale immersive installations, employing artisanal techniques such as crochet to compose flexible, interactive structures that activate our five senses, with the incorporation of botanical elements, spices and herbs. His procedure erects membranes and skins, nets and containers that use gravity and balance as compositional resources. His works always maintain a close relationship to nature, whether in the biomorphic physiognomy of his structures or the interconnected character of the elements that compose his spaces. Ernesto Neto’s multisensory environments are walked through and inhabited, forming meeting places for exchange and reflection. The public is not presupposed as a group of observers but received as a collective of active bodies and presences in the installations.
Among his recent solo exhibitions are Nosso Barco Tambor Terra, MAAT Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal (2024)CapiDançaBaribéNois, Oficina Francisco Brennand, Recife, Brazil (2023); SunForceOceanLife, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA (2021); Sopro, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; MALBA – Museum of Latin American Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2021) Mentre la vita ci respira – SoPolpoVit’EreticoLe, GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy; Water Falls from my Breast to the Sky, MCA – Museum Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA (2019). He has also participated in the group shows Remedios: Where New Land Might Grow, Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía – C3A, Córdoba, Espanha (2023); 1.5 Degrees, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Alemanha (2023) e Interstices, Elevation 1049, Gstaad, Suiça (2023).
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporânea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Málaga, Spain; Daros Latin America, Zurich, Switzerland; Fundación “La Caixa”, Barcelona, Spain; Fundación Televisa, México; Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, USA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, USA Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brasil; Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, USA; MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, USA; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Purchase Fund, Washington DC, USA; Qatar Museum, Doha, Qatar; SFMoMA – San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, São Francisco, USA Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; TBA21 – Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation, Vienna, Austria; The American Fund for the Tate Gallery Collection, London, UK; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA
