José Bento | Mão Amiga

This Saturday, from 2 pm, A Gentil Carioca opens Mão Amiga [Helping Hand], a new solo exhibition by José Bento. Born from the partnership between A Gentil Carioca and Galeria Sardenberg, the show occupies both galleries' spaces in São Paulo simultaneously.

The exhibition takes its name from a traditional Brazilian joinery joint known as mão amiga — a technique used to connect large pieces of timber without nails or glue. From this image, José Bento unfolds a reflection on interdependence and coexistence: on the ways we uphold, or fail to uphold, the world around us.

The show brings together previously unseen sculptures that draw connections between utensils, landscape, and architecture, across themes of scarcity, permanence, and transformation. Monumental spoons, plates hollowed from ancient trunks, and vessels filled with beans form an ensemble that puts the relationships between nature, consumption, and survival under sustained tension.

Throughout the exhibition, contrasting elements share the same space. Forest and construction, delicacy and weight, shelter and devastation articulate forms of coexistence within a landscape of persistent tension.

The presentation text is written by Ricardo Sardenberg.