Central Galeria presents “State of Trance,” a solo exhibition by artist Dora Smék featuring unprecedented sculptures, installations, and videos in Higienópolis.
Central Galeria, located in the Higienópolis neighborhood of São Paulo, opened the exhibition “State of Trance” on Saturday, October 3. The show is the second solo exhibition by Brazilian artist Dora Smék (born 1987) at the gallery space and brings together a set of unprecedented works, including sculptures, installations, and videos. The research presented investigates the relationships between body, politics, magic, and presence in light of the need to transform dynamics in the contemporary world.
In the exhibited collection, objects such as amulets, oracles, and figas—crafted in iron and bronze combined with protective stones—articulate bridges between concrete reality and enchanted states of perception. The production explores the material limits of these elements, from the melting points where they update their physical states to the boundaries between the tangible and the invisible, rise and fall, reason and sensitivity. Dora Smék’s language is historically grounded in the tension between containment and expansion, limit and spillover, creating structures in which the supports seem to attempt to contain a body seeking to escape imposed boundaries.
With a critical text signed by Yago Toscano, the exhibition places discursive thought and the epistemologies of enchantment in tension, proposing a shift in how we view the present away from hegemonic narratives. As Toscano highlights in his essay, the tremor that builds over bodies and disrupts the sensitive topography of the works reflects a response to world transformations, presenting the emancipatory character of presences engaged with the power of enchantment.
The exhibition will remain open until November 14, 2026. Central Galeria is located at Rua Minas Gerais, 362, in Higienópolis, São Paulo.