Brazilian sculptor Solange Pessoa is the subject of a solo exhibition at the Aspen Art Museum, featuring her evolving installation *Bags – Aspen version* (1994–2025). The work, originally created in 1994, consists of burlap sacks filled with organic materials such as coffee beans, seeds, feathers, dried peppers, and records by Brazilian musicians, arranged in towers on a dirt-covered floor. Pessoa, who has long been based in Belo Horizonte, has recreated the piece in various locations over three decades, and this iteration marks one of her few solo museum shows outside Brazil.
Pessoa’s practice blurs the boundaries between culture and nature, using bodily fluids, hair, leather, and organic matter to create sculptures that evoke animal metamorphosis and ecological interconnectedness. Despite her growing international recognition—including a 2023 show at Kunsthaus Bregenz and inclusion in the 2022 Venice Biennale—she has never been featured in the Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil’s top biennial. The Aspen exhibition underscores her rising global profile and the continued relevance of her earthy, provocative work.