By contrasting and merging materials, and through dialogues between objects of different origins and functions, Alexandre da Cunha (1969) operates critically within a value scale that unites Brazilian popular culture and modernism, decorative arts, and British pop culture.

Recent solo exhibitions include Travessia, Luisa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil (2024); Thomas Dane Gallery, London, England, and Italy (2023); Thomas Dane, Naples, Italy (2020); Duologue – with Phillip King, The Royal Society of Sculptors, London, England (2018); Boom, Pivô, São Paulo, Brazil (2017); and Mornings, Office Baroque, Brussels, Belgium (2017). Group exhibitions include Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles, Warwick Arts Center, Coventry, England (2024); Histórias da Sexualidade, MASP, São Paulo (2017); When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2013); and the 30th São Paulo Biennial (2012).

His urban intervention works include commissions by Art on the Underground for the Battersea Underground Station in London (2021) and by MCA Chicago. His works are in the collections of Tate Modern; Museu de Arte da Pampulha; Instituto Inhotim; CIFO Cisneros Collection; Zabludowicz Collection; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; and FAMA.
The new works in the series Broken (2024) demonstrate da Cunha’s deepening exploration of pictorial thought and the tension between public and private spheres, as well as the continuity of a practice based in revealing hidden aspects of objects removed from their original contexts.

In relation to other works from the artist, in Broken (Noite quente à beira mar) (2024) the association with the language of painting becomes more radical. The organisation and composition of objects (paper straws, wooden discs, and a fan blade) occurs on flat, quadrilateral fabric surfaces. By creating these “canvases” using textiles drawn from intimate contexts — notably a dishcloth, a bedsheet, and an undergarment — the work reinstates the tension between the public and the personal.