Gustavo Nazareno, 'How to Grow a Flower from a Supernova'

Opera Gallery in Paris is pleased to present ‘How to Grow a Flower from a Supernova’, a solo exhibition of new paintings and charcoal drawings by Brazilian artist Gustavo Nazareno. 

Presented during Couture Week in Paris, the new series combines devotional imagery with symbolic and structural language of fashion. Through paintings and charcoals, Nazareno makes an offering to Pombagira, a feminine entity within Candomblé, a religion the artist practices. Associated with beauty, seduction, autonomy and power, Pombagira serves as both subject and framework. For the artist, she represents a fusion of spirituality, performance, and beauty. The garments become a narrative, shape identity, and communicate without words. 

Moreover, marking his evolving exploration of astrophysics, Nazareno situates the figures against the backdrop of an imagined planet—complete with its own weather, light, shadows, and inhabitants.

Amongst the new paintings there is Minutes Before Jupiter Saves Earth from a Comet. "This piece acts as a metaphor for one of the central narratives of the exhibition: Pombagira. In Umbanda oral tradition, Pombagira is said to have seven husbands. I began thinking about the logic of a couture show, where there is traditionally a single bride, and imagined my own version with seven brides instead. In this scene, they are all running away. Jupiter appears as a cosmic protective force, while the Earth stands for the earthly deities that orbit around it. Through this story, I am constructing a symbolic universe where celestial movement, Afro-Brazilian spirituality, and the drama of couture collapse into a single image", reveals Nazareno.