Sonia Gomes

Lamparina II, 2025

Candelabra Bronze H 11 x W 9 ½ in (H 28 x W 24 cm) Edition of 10 Brazilian artist Sonia Gomes has spent decades transforming soft materials into sculptures that feel alive with history. Here, a bronze cast captures what was once fabric wrapped around an ostrich egg, its creases and stitches frozen in metal. Raised in Brazil’s textile capital of Caetanópolis and self-taught until her forties, Gomes builds her work from improvisation and care, mending, binding, and transforming discarded materials into something enduring. In this candelabra for Side Hustle, what once seemed delicate has become solid, a small monument to the resilience found in making by hand.

1-3 months Ships from Brazil

Sonia Gomes, born in Caetanópolis, Minas Gerais, and based in São Paulo, works with the remains of the everyday—cloth that once covered a body, lace folded in a drawer, wire bent for another use. Each carries a history of touch. Through wrapping, knotting, and stitching, she translates these materials into sculptural forms that feel both improvised and deliberate. Her process, intuitive yet exacting, transforms acts of handwork into a kind of drawing—one that links, balances, and suspends fragments in space until they find equilibrium. Her work bridges craft and monument, revealing how care and repair can themselves become structural principles. A defining voice in contemporary sculpture, Gomes has represented Brazil at the Venice Biennale twice, in 2015 and 2024. For Side Hustle, Gomes presents four sculptures: three spherical variations and a concise, four-legged stool. Each began as a fabric-based composition before being cast in bronze. The translation preserves the tension and pliancy of the textile while granting it permanence. The metal’s surface holds the memory of its soft origin, capturing the precise instant when motion becomes form. Bronze recreates her signature ephemeral gestures with weight, transforming impermanence into structure.