At Frieze London 2025, Alberto Pitta participates in Echoes in the Present. This section, curated by Jareh Das, explores the connections between artists from Brazil, Africa, and their diasporas. Rooted in shared histories, their ties are marked by the forced displacement of African peoples across the Atlantic and sustained through ongoing cultural exchange.
Pitta's presentation features new works from the Mariwô series, developed especially for the occasion. Màriwó (Elaeis guineensis) is the leaf of the oil palm, a sacred tree in Candomblé, the religion in which Pitta was raised. Each branch of the plant is carefully shredded and hung on the doors and windows of terreiros and casas de santo, to ward off evil and protect the energy of these Afro-Brazilian religious ritual spaces. Pitta’s visual trajectory is characterized by a distinctive interest in Afro-Brazilian cultures, spirituality, and graphic experimentation. With a practice that spans over four decades, his work is still inextricably tied to his personal history. As the son of Ialorixá Mãe Santinha de Oyá, he was introduced at an early age to his mother's religion and its rich textile traditions. Initially, this heritage is present in the artists' intricate richelieu embroideries. Since the 1980s, he has also developed patterned serigraphs for Carnival, bringing spiritual and ceremonial significance to the festivities.
Evoked in his prints are traditional African and Afro-diasporic elements, particularly those from Yoruba mythology. In the words of curator Renato Menezes: "Indeed, signs, forms, and traces that evoke traditional African graphic languages have found, upon his fabrics, a privileged place for the education of the masses and the telling of stories that only make sense collectively. If writing, in Pitta’s work, is established through patterns and colors that reinterpret the Yoruba worldview, reading, on the other hand, arises from the relationships established through the contact of moving bodies, when the city streets become a terreiro. Across the folds of the fabrics that clothe the revelers runs an alphabet of letters and affections, activated by music and dance: it is on the body of the other that one reads the text that completes us."
In addition to his presentation at Nara Roesler’s booth in Echoes in the Present, Pitta presents a selection of more than a dozen historical Carnival textiles, suspended throughout the corridors of Jareh Das’ curated section.