The Aesthetics of Possibility: Samuel de Saboia

 

 

 

MARUANI MERCIER is thrilled to present The Aesthetics of Possibility, the second solo exhibition of Samuel de Saboia with the gallery, opening on April 4, 2026 in Knokke. In the new body of work, dynamic arcing lines interweave and dance across each composition, configuring into a gathering of multitudinous faces and bodies in space. Gaining renewed intensity and rhythm, the gestural outlines evince both harmony and tension, freedom and restraint. For de Saboia, they embody the multiplicity of identities and histories that shape his personal background, embracing complexity without losing their sensorial generosity. Executed in deeper palette, the works in The Aesthetics of Possibility mark a shift in de Saboia’s practice towards an unbridled gesture and deliberate layering of distinct narratives, reinforcing the paintings’ explorations of identity, collectivity, and transformation.

 

De Saboia’s practice as a musician and performer transpires in the improvisational quality of his mark-making, at once intuitive and responsive to the material qualities of his medium. With their cadence of radiating gestures, the paintings in the exhibition evoke fields of sound waves and embody the entanglement of living things. In All Leads to This / Self Transformation, a profile of the figure framing the composition reverberates into repeating outlines of bodies in a kind of call and response. Operating on multiple pictorial planes, from features looking back at the viewer to more distant echoes of movement, the painting forms a three-dimensional chorus of distinct voices and lived experiences. For de Saboia, the works in the exhibition evoke portals, spaces that register the harmonious coexistence of disparate ways of being and offer liberation from social expectations associated with his class, race and sexuality that he encountered in the past.

 

Samuel de Saboia (b. 1998, Recife, Brazil) studied Architecture and Urbanism at Universidade dos Guararapes and Graphic Design at Unibratec before establishing an international art career. The artist is the subject of an upcoming institutional solo exhibition Introduction to Infinity at Farol Santander, Brazil opening in 2026. He has shown widely with solo and group exhibitions including A Bird Called Innocence at Kunsthalle Zurich (2020), Constellation of Certainties at NumeroVenti Residency, Florence (2023), Filling in the Pieces in Black (curated by June Sarpong) at MARUANI MERCIER in Brussels and Saatchi Gallery London (2023), Metaphysical Poetry at MARUANI MERCIER Brussels (2024), and Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st Century Art and Poetics at LACMA, Los Angeles (2025). His work is held in notable collections such as LACMA, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid), Dover Street Market (Paris), Fundação Marcos Amaro (São Paulo), and the Maruani & Mercier Collections in Belgium, among others.