In her sculptures, Nádia Taquary evokes feminine power through bronze casting. By transmuting the metal and shaping it, the artist imbues it with a technical refinement reminiscent of sumptuous ancient African production. Her work re-signifies African traditions, bringing to light technologies, narratives, and aesthetics that have historically been ignored or appropriated by the West.

Based on her studies of Afro-Brazilian jewelry, Taquary delves into ancestral, religious, and Afro-feminine history. Jewelleries such as balangandans, which adorned the waists of Black women during the enslaved-owning period, are symbols of strength and power. By expanding them into three-dimensional form, the artist deconstructs narratives imposed by colonialism and the history of art itself.

In the installation Ìrókó: A árvore cósmica [Ìrókó: The Cosmic Tree] (2025), created for the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, the artist deepens her relationship with materials and with bronze forging. Using fiberglass, bronze sculptures representing the Ìyámis (female ancestral entities), and strings of beads in the colors of the deity Ìrókó, the work evokes ancestral knowledge through the cycle of life. Ìrókó, the orisha lord of time and ancestrality, came to be worshipped in Brazil by means of the gameleira – a tree found in the yards (or terreiros) of religions of African origin, signaled by a white flag. Ìrókó is the antidote to evil, the calm after the storm, and the inevitability of life. It was the first tree to be planted and, according to tradition, it was through it that the orishas descended to Earth, and upon which the Ìyámis sorceresses landed.