The scale of stars in the sky or sand-rocks under the sea are quite small for the human eye. On the other hand, a human being is nothing but a tiny figure compared to the depth of the oceans or the largeness of the universe. In between each and every shade of blue, the endless imagination of Sandra Cinto pictures them all. The artist invites the public to walk into unearthly encounters.

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Whether drawing, painting, sculpting or making installations, Sandra Cinto is always attentive to the environment around her. In the art scene since the 1990s, she has already taken the public into deep waters and onto high clouds. Mixing various media and taking into consideration the architecture of the gallery, Cinto creates different layers of illusions in her work: the viewer tends to explore the whole room. Once familiarized with it, there is the curiosity to investigate the minor details in a second stage, which are themselves separate parallel universes. Each piece of paper, canvas or wall has its own mysteries, just as every human being is a distinct cosmos. There is no biosphere without ecosystems, and ecosystems are made out of populations and individuals; in other words, everything has a specific role for the functioning of the whole. The science of things applies to the science of art.

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In one installation, the artist dyed numerous pieces of paper in dissimilar tones of blue adding different types of stars with golden ink. Afterwards, these papers hanging together from the ceiling become a majestic sky above the viewers’ heads, resembling parts of a Renaissance painting or a scene from 1001 Arabian Nights. From the ethereal to the subsurface, Cinto takes the public into another supernatural experience: large canvases painted in a wide variety of blues (again), with silver lines drawn to represent the waves in the sea, cover the walls of a room, as if the spectator were in the eye of a storm. In the next room, other similar drawings and paintings are framed in different sizes on a wall, and thousands of paper boats seem to be coming out of the wall and into the space of the gallery. Cinto named the last one The Difficult Journey, after Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of Medusa, but it could also be referring to our own difficult journeys of everyday. The alchemists believed in the power of noble metals - gold and silver - to transform life; Sandra Cinto appears to be suggesting that things might not be so blue when one is surrounded by stars and waves. The unknown is fascinating and scary at the same time, but is there any nature more mystical than man’s nature?

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Finally, both the Brazilian flag and the national anthem make reference to the firmament. The relevance of the waters in this territory is enormous as well, as Brazilians have a strong connection with the sea and the rivers. This comes from a historical and cultural tradition through the centuries. It is common to hear in these lands that Brazil is the country blessed by God. Though in times of climate change and environmental threats how far would Brazilians swim, stride or soar to protect their natural resources? In this light, may the artworks of Sandra Cinto serve as post-it notes, to make sure people keep in mind the value of these blues.

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Sandra Cinto came up with two works conceived especially for this exhibition. The painting carries the same spirit of her former works based on waves and storms: it provokes mixed feelings of anxiety and anger along with serenity and refreshment. The site-specific installation - painted straight onto the C.A.B.’s wall - is an invitation for the viewer to go deeper into the artist’s sea, to experience the subtlety of her drawings and the strength of her blues.