Following her participation in the group exhibition How to Reverse a Spell, curated by Paula Nascimento and presented at Lehmann gallery between February and March 2025, Sofia Yala (1994, Lisbon, Portugal) has been invited to develop a solo exhibition for the gallery’s project space.

An Angolan-Portuguese visual artist, Sofia Yala holds a BA in African Studies and completed an MA in Film and Photography at the University of Derby (UK), in 2021.

Yala’s artistic practice engages with archival materials in dialogue with unexpected encounters drawn from lived experience. Her work unfolds through forms of storytelling that interweave multiple temporalities, textures, and layers, reflecting on the processes of (de)constructing identity as a transatlantic body within a vast and intricate world.

"In Constellation of Dust, Sofia Yala invites us to move beyond the photographic polarity between document and artwork between dualities that inform different political and cultural systems and have profoundly conditioned the social impact of images, affecting both sensory experience and cognitive process. This series, now presented at Lehmann gallery, emerged in the context of an artist residency that granted her access to the historical archive of the photo studio W.W. Winters, founded in 1852 and considered the oldest still operating in the United Kingdom (Derby)."

PAULA PARENTE PINTO

Excerpt of the exhibition text