For over four decades, Alberto Pitta has developed a visual practice that weaves together Afro-Brazilian knowledge systems, spirituality, and graphic experimentation. Fabric – his primary medium – serves as a platform for non-hegemonic education, forging connections between art, history, and collective experience. This relationship is deeply rooted in his life story and was inherited as a familial legacy. The son of Mãe Santinha de Oyá – spiritual leader, educator, embroideress, and founder of Ilê Axé Oyá in the Pirajá neighborhood of Salvador – Pitta was raised within the artistic and existential practices of Candomblé.
Since the 1980s, his work has established a distinctive visual language within Bahia’s Black Carnival, shaped by his designs for costumes and prints for iconic Afro-Brazilian Carnival groups such as Ilê Aiyê (Band’Aiyê), Olodum, Filhos de Gandhy, Oba Laiyê, and the Afoxé Filhos do Congo. In 1998, he founded the Cortejo Afro, expanding his aesthetic investigations and reaffirming fabric as the central element of his artistic practice. Among his most characteristic techniques is the use of white-onwhite, though the interplay of vibrant colors, layered patterns, and complex compositions also features in his work, creating visual rhythms that evoke narratives anchored in community and symbolism.
Beyond Carnival, Pitta’s work transcends the boundaries of textile design. Grounded in silkscreen printing, his practice engages with the field of contemporary art, extending into painting and sculptural experimentation. With a strong international presence, his work has circulated through various art institutions, building connections that transcend both geographic and conceptual borders. His fabrics – situated between ritual and the art of memory – are part of a broader visual repertoire that may be described as Afro-Atlantic, in which patterns, symbols, and gestures sustain dialogues between Brazils, Africas, and their diasporas.
His creative process unfolds as a shared practice, in which the weaving of the fabric interlaces with the lives of the communities who wear it, whether in his studio – reflected in the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion of the 36th Bienal de São Paulo – in the Afro-Brazilian Carnival groups that parade through the streets of Salvador, or within gallery spaces. In this process, Pitta’s fabrics and stories continue to speak – alive, in motion, adorning bodies and crossing time.