Sandra Cinto: The Path to Stars

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is pleased to present The Path to Stars, an installation of major new work by Sandra Cinto. This is the twelfth solo exhibition by the São Paulo-based artist since her debut presentation at the gallery in 1999. For over three decades, Sandra Cinto has explored the potential of drawing to create intricate images and immersive environments, often using the line as a gesture to deconstruct the physical and conceptual boundaries between painting, sculpture, and site. In The Path to Stars, new paintings, wall paintings, and folding screens further examine the sun and the stars as inspirational elements, offering powerful means of connection, particularly during times of polarization and discord. The Path to Stars invites the viewer to reflect on the idea of perception through the lens of opposites. At the entrance to the gallery, a dark blue tondo painting greets visitors. Reminiscent of the night sky, Nocturne begins the journey from night to day. Continuing into the main space, the palette of the paintings transitions through waning twilight to a large tondo, Aurora, depicting the first light of sunrise. A series of smaller skyscapes captures the golden light of daytime, before culminating in the inky blue of dusk. Together, the paintings in the exhibition investigate how contrasts influence the way we see, feel, and interpret the world around us. By exploring the relationships between light and shadow, presence and absence, balance and imbalance, the exhibition encourages visitors to question the boundaries between extremes and to realize that opposites do not cancel each other out; rather, they can coexist, complement one another, and undergo mutual transformation. Two large biombos divide the space, each with one side intricately rendered in gold, and the other with loose, gestural brushstrokes against a blue background. For Cinto, a space of possibilities lies between these two opposites. The surrounding paintings offer a refuge to these extremes, enabling us to better understand our environs as we shift our gaze to what exists between these opposites. The middle path between the two urges us to cross the boundaries that separate them and to recognize the nuances that emerge in liminal spaces. Rather than eliminating differences or achieving absolute neutrality, we are asked to inhabit the tension between extremes – perceiving their interdependencies, contradictions, and potential for evolution. In The Path to Stars, the “middle” is not necessarily a point of balance, but a field of inquiry: a place where boundaries become permeable and reality reveals its complexities. Since the early 1990s, Cinto has presented her work at museums and institutions worldwide including important solo exhibitions at Es Baluard Museu D’Art Contemporani de Palma in Mallorca (20250; Fondation Hermès, Tokyo (2020); Instituto Itaú Cultural, Sao Paulo, solo exhibition curated by Paulo Herkenoff (2020); the Dallas Museum of Art (2019-2020); Contemporary Art Center Cincinnati (2017); USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, Florida (2015); the CAAM Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno in Madrid, Spain (2014); Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo (2010); MACUF Museum of Contemporary Art Union Fenosa in La Coruña, Spain (2007); Wall Project at São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (2003); and Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2003). The artist is currently creating an integrated, permanent public artwork consisting of eight ceramic tiled walls for a bookstore in Praça Igarapé, a public square in São Paulo, which is scheduled to open on December 1, 2026.Among her many other public projects and commissions worldwide, her most notable include Prelude to Dream & Melody for the Stars I and II at Teatro Cultura Artística in Sao Paulo (2024); Night of Hope at AT&T Stadium, Dallas Cowboys Art Collection (2024); Let Freedom Ring, 2023, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC (2023); The Wishes Boulevard, 2021 Thailand Biennial, curated by Yuko Hasegawa, Korat, Thailand (2021); The Rooftop of the Rosewood Hotel, São Paulo (2021); Water Movement, Itaúsa Bank, Sao Paulo (2020); Open Seascape at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York (2019); Untitled for Murals of La Jolla (2018); The Invisible Telescope at USF Kate Tiedemann College of Business (2018); Library of Love at the Contemporary Art Center Cincinnati (2017); The Great Sun, P.S. 56 (2016); One Day, After the Rain, commissioned by The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. (2012-2013); Encounter of Waters at Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Park Pavilion (2012-2014); A Casa das Fontes (The House of Fountains), an installation conceived for Casa do Sertanista in Sao Paulo (2013); When The Night Comes Into My Room, an outdoor public commission for Obra Viva/Esculturas Públicas (Living Work/Public Sculptures) at Parque Ecológico Municipal Estoril–Virgilio Simionatto in São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil (2012); and Japonism, a public commission for the SESC swimming pool in Santo André, Brazil (2011).