![Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, Thari au [Escudo blanco / White shield], 2023](https://static-assets.artlogic.net/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-cbprojects/usr/images/news/main_image/152/shh0065-image.jpg)
The first solo U.S. museum exhibition by artist Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe (b. 1971, Sheroana, Venezuela) is a joint presentation between ICA Miami and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, composing more than 100 works, including pieces from the Fondation Cartier’s collection as well as new commissions across a variety of media, to reveal the artist’s distinct pictorial lexicon and relationship with the natural world.
Hakihiiwe is among the most important Venezuelan artists working today on an international scale. A member of the Yanomami people, one of the largest indigenous groups living in Amazonia, Hakihiiwe was raised and still lives in the remote Poripori community along the banks of the upper Orinoco River. He draws inspiration from the vestiges and forms of the flora and fauna found in the forest where he resides. Through his practice, Hakihiiwe builds new visual languages to record his cultural heritage, ancestral myths, and ties to the environment. Best known for his drawings, paintings, and prints on handmade paper, the Miami exhibition highlights the artist’s continued material investigations, including animation, murals, and site-specific installations.
The exhibition tracks the evolution of Hakihiiwe’s oeuvre from his foundational works on paper to his latest explorations across media through four distinct sections. The first section, Building a Language, follows the artist’s earliest efforts to develop and refine his approach for visually transmitting the Yanomami cultural experience, including his seminal work, Shapono. The following section, Notational Systems and Encyclopedic Exercises expounds on Hakihiiwe’s taxonomic impulses, beginning with the indexical systems he began to develop in the early 2010s. The third section, Landscapes, sees the artist widening both the lens and form of his compositions to include larger tableaus and new materials. The final section, Shamanic Initiation, examines the effects of the artist’s recent shamanic training, including the power of dreams and images that bridge the visible and invisible worlds. Shamanic Initiation showcases Hakihiiwe’s latest works, including a new film soundtracked by the artist’s chanting, a site-specific mural, and a site-specific installation featuring a set of shamanic poles.
ICA Miami, Florida, US
19 November 2026 - 28 March 2027
The exhibition is co-curated by Gean Moreno, Director of the Art + Research Center at ICA Miami, and Michela Alessandrini, Curator at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.
