First U.S. Museum Solo Exhibition for Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe Debuts in November at ICA Miami, a Joint Presentation with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain

The landmark exhibition explores more than 25 years of the Venezuelan artist’s expressions of Indigenous Amazonia, including new site-specific commissions

Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, Puu motho shipe (Stinging Vines), 2023. © Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe

The first solo U.S. museum exhibition by artist Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe (b. 1971, Sheroana, Venezuela) opens this November at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami), ahead of Miami Art Week. A joint presentation with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe comprises more than 100 works, including pieces from the Fondation Cartier’s collection as well as new commissions across a variety of media, to reveal the artist’s distinct pictorial lexicon and relationship with the natural world. Opening November 19, Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe is co-curated by Gean Moreno, Director of the Art + Research Center at ICA Miami, and Michela Alessandrini, Curator at the Fondation Cartier. The exhibition reflects the two institutions’ shared commitment to representing the significance of human relationships to the environment in their programs. 

Hakihiiwe is among the most important Venezuelan artists working today on an international scale. A member of the Yanomami people, one of the largest Indigenous groups living in Amazonia, Hakihiiwe was raised and still lives in the remote Poripori community along the banks of the upper Orinoco River. He draws inspiration from the vestiges and forms of the flora and fauna found in the forest where he resides. Through his practice, Hakihiiwe builds new visual languages to record his cultural heritage, ancestral myths, and ties to the environment. Best known for his drawings, paintings, and prints on handmade paper, the Miami exhibition highlights the artist’s continued material investigations, including animation, murals, and site-specific installations.

In his practice, Hakihiiwe emphasizes the connectivity of all life forms alongside the vulnerable state of Indigenous approaches. “Everything you can see is beautiful, but it’s all at risk of disappearing, including my family, my community, the language we speak, and everything I know in the forest—animals, plants, rivers, even me,” remarked the artist in 2023 at the opening of Siamo Foresta in Milan, organized by Fondation Cartier.

“Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe's work offers a glimpse into vast Indigenous knowledge systems through a visual language that is as meticulous and rich as the natural world and cultural traditions from which it emerges. At ICA Miami, we are dedicated to exhibiting work that reveals the complexity and breadth of artistic production around the world, creating a bridge to globally significant artistic practices that have not yet received sustained institutional recognition in the United States. It is especially meaningful to present this landmark exhibition in Miami, given the city's enduring connections to Latin America and its position as a vital cultural crossroads in the Americas,” noted Alex Gartenfeld, Irma and Norman Braman Artistic Director at ICA Miami.

The exhibition at ICA Miami tracks the evolution of Hakihiiwe’s oeuvre from his foundational works on paper to his latest explorations across media through four distinct sections. The first section, Building a Language, follows the artist’s earliest efforts to develop and refine his approach for visually transmitting the Yanomami cultural experience, including his seminal work, Shapono. The following section, Notational Systems and Encyclopedic Exercises expounds on Hakihiiwe’s taxonomic impulses, beginning with the indexical systems he began to develop in the early 2010s.  The third section, Landscapes, sees the artist widening both the lens and form of his compositions to include larger tableaus and new materials. The final section, Shamanic Initiation, examines the effects of the artist’s recent shamanic training, including the power of dreams and images that bridge the visible and invisible worlds. Shamanic Initiation showcases Hakihiiwe’s latest works, including a new film soundtracked by the artist’s chanting, a site-specific mural, and a site-specific installation featuring a set of shamanic poles.

The exhibition is designed by the renowned Mexico City-based architect Mauricio Rocha, and his studio Taller de Arquitectura. Inspired by the atmospheric qualities of the traditional Yanomami housing (shapono), Rocha's architectural vision transforms filtered light, natural earth pigments, and framed views of the surrounding landscape into a contemplative spatial experience, inviting a slow encounter with Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe's visual language and its profound connection to the forest.