Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe (b. 1971, Venezuela), born in a small Yanomami Indigenous community in the Venezuelan Amazon, Hakihiiwe began making paper from natural fibres in the 1990s, a skill he learned by studying with the Mexican artist Laura Anderson Barbata. The artist’s work now consists primarily of drawing, painting and printmaking on sheets fabricated from local plant life, including shiki, abaca, mulberry tree bark, sugar cane and bananas. He draws from his ancestral knowledge of the signs and symbols of Yanomami culture, and their decorative application in basketry and body painting for ritual ceremonies. His work forms a rapidly growing visual lexicon, or library, of Yanomami visual culture.
His recent series of monoprints are formed of rhythmic repetitions of transcribed Yanomami symbols, as well as new symbols created by his observations of his surroundings and his community. Some reference insects, animals and plants, while others have less concrete natural analogues. Hakihiiwe’s monoprints, drawings and paintings reveal his beliefs, rites and traditions as well as his close relationship to the natural world.
Hakihiiwe was selected for The Milk of Dreams, the main exhibition at the LIX Venice Biennale in 2022, curated by Cecilia Alemani. Other recent group shows that the artist has participated in include: Siamo Foresta, Triennale di Milano, Italy (2023); Chosen Memories: Contemporary Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift and Beyond, MoMA, New York, USA (2023); The Yanomami Struggle, The Shed, New York, USA (2023); Kathmandú Triennale 2077, Kathmandú, Nepal (2022); XXIII Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2022) and Les Vivants, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, France (2022).
Hakihiiwe has had various international solo exhibitions, most recently: Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe: All This Is Us, MASP, São Paulo, Brazil (2023); Thororo nasipe re u no wawe wawe, Galería Elba Benítez, Madrid, Spain (2022); Watori, Ana Mas Projects, Barcelona, Spain (2021); Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, Carpintaria, Río de Janeiro, Brazil (2021); and Urihi theri, Lissabon Kunsthalle. Lisbon, Portugal (2021).