Alexandre da Cunha

I like the idea of viewers encountering something beautiful with a reference to textiles and crafts and then, after recognizing the object . . . , considering notions of cleaning, labor, and global trade—how these things come from other countries and how we use them.

–Alexandre da Cunha

Referring to his practice as “pointing” rather than “making,” Brazilian-born artist Alexandre da Cunha often employs pre-fabricated, mass-produced items in his work to examine issues of commodity culture and manual labor. In Untitled (coffee), coarse burlap from bags used to hold coffee beans for export has been stretched like a painting. This work was first exhibited in Brazil’s São Paulo state, which flourished in the 1800s as a center of the coffee industry first through the forced labor of enslaved Africans and later from that of European immigrants.

–Kate Irvin, curator of costume and textiles