Fiery Piaga is Thiago Martins de Melo’s new exhibition at Almeida & Dale, curated by Chico Soll.

The exhibition brings together a group of works created especially for the occasion, including paintings and sculptures. Among them are small-scale canvases, produced in dimensions unprecedented in the artist’s practice. They depict figures and events from the political-cosmological history of Latin America—both real and reimagined—within a non-linear, anachronistic temporal flow. Unlike the artist’s large-scale paintings, which bring multiple narratives into coexistence, each of these works is devoted exclusively to a single scene. They also reveal a different pictorial treatment of light and texture, particularly evident in the representations of fire and water.

The exhibition is completed by “large canvases oversaturated with layers of impasto, collage, and sculptures covered in oil paint,” portraying “historical figures [that] perform alongside mythological fabulations in na anachronistic, displaced temporality. These scenes are juxtaposed and simultaneous. They operate as shots and reverse shots within a panorama charged by both narrative depth and material density,” as curator Chico Soll describes.