Anderson Borba: The Unearthed

21 Mar-31 May 2026

Overview

A solo presentation by Brazilian artist Anderson Borba.

The exhibition will feature up to 13 sculptures in wood, including new work that Borba has made over the last few months in his studio in Barra Funda in São Paulo, alongside two or three works from his recent show at The Approach in London. 

Borba works primarily with found wood that he sources locally, alongside materials such as cardboard, textile, plaster, and found images from books, magazines and other photography. These serve as starting points for processes that involve carving, hollowing, scorching, pressing, painting and gluing, which result in heavily worked enigmatic forms that seem ‘partly animal, partly plant, partly humanoid, partly extraterrestrial.’

When brought together, his sculptures suggest a heightened natural order that is entirely their own. Writer Bernardo José de Souza has described Borba’s sculptural practice as an ‘imagined cosmology’ that combines references to European and Brazilian modernist practices with elements that reflect the self-taught artists of inner Brazil and ancestral belief systems.

In a new essay that will accompany the exhibition de Souza refers to Borba’s sculptures as ‘sentinels of an ecology of wisdom’, which seek to awaken ‘our hidden nature, our dormant collective memory, our connection with the unbound.’

Anderson Borba (b. 1972, Santos, Brazil) lives and works in both London, UK, and São Paulo, Brazil. He is represented by The Approach, London and Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo. 

Recent solo and two person exhibitions include: Secret Ceremony, The Approach, London, UK (2025), Harvest (with Marta Jakobovits), Elizabeth Xi Bauer, London, UK (2025); Thinking Hands (with Gokula Stoffel), Francois Ghebaly, New York, USA; Anderson Borba + Dudi Maia Rosa, auroras, São Paulo, Brazil (2024); Anderson Borba + Erika Verzutti, Pivô, São Paulo, Brazil (2023). 

Group exhibitions include: Quebracorpo, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2025); Passages | 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Encounter, Lisbon, Portugal; Eu não confio, Galeria Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Ghosts in Sunlight, Thirsk Hall, North Yorkshire, UK; On feeling, The approach, London, UK; Woodworks, Lamb Gallery, London, UK (all 2024).