Afonso Tostes
acrylic, pigment and wood dust on wood
19.68 x 66.92 in
Wood is central to Afonso Tostes’s practice, both for its symbolic weight and its formal qualities, mobilizing questions concerning sustainability and the environment. In the metal sculpture shown here, from an untitled series begun in 2026, Tostes sets up a counterpoint to his better-known pieces in wood, where he uses found tree trunks and fragments to build compositions marked by instability – an allusion to the imbalance of forests. The gallery is also presenting "Árvore pequena" (2023), made from paper obtained from discarded books, alongside a group of untitled paintings from 2025. In these works, Tostes uses dust and wood residue from his own production to activate a poetics of reconstructing what has been lost – here, the trees themselves.