Home with a Man
Alexandre da Cunha and Brian Griffiths
Elizabeth Xi Bauer, Exmouth Market
15th August – 28th September 2025
Private View: 14th August 2025
Elizabeth Xi Bauer is delighted to announce Home with a Man, a duo exhibition bringing together artists Alexandre da Cunha and Brian Griffiths. Since first exhibiting together in São Paulo in 20021, the pair have reconnected at key points in their careers—across continents, exhibitions, and academic contexts. This exhibition marks a significant chapter in their conversation—a moment of convergence that casts new light on their distinct yet subtly interconnected sculptural practices.
Through shared themes of material transformation, narrative tension, and the reordering of the everyday, Home with a Man invites viewers into a layered dialogue between the two artists. Together, they explore domesticity and scripted roles through sculpture, installation, and painting. The exhibition title, borrowed from da Cunha’s Exile series (2022–2025), could be read like a line from a diary or a cheap romance novel, direct yet ambiguous and emotionally charged. Home with a Man builds through staged gestures and altered objects – where the domestic life operates as both routine and fantasy, and the ordinary slips into something less certain.
Alexandre da Cunha reconfigures the everyday with poetic vision and sculptural precision. He describes his practice as one of pointing rather than making—a gesture of recognition and reframing. In his hands, ordinary materials are not just elevated but recontextualised: stripped from their usual roles and given new, often unexpected meanings. Mop heads become tapestries, concrete reveals a fragile delicacy, and deck chairs morph into visual puzzles—each transformation a subversion.
Grounded in materiality and driven by concept, da Cunha’s work brings together found objects—often sourced from domestic, industrial, or leisure settings—to create tensions and conversations that speak both to his native Brazil’s improvisational vernacular and to the tropes of international modernism.
In Home with a Man, da Cunha presents works crafted from materials that frequently appear in his practice—scrap metal, mop heads, coconut tree branches, and discarded functional objects. These materials are not disguised; their original purposes remain visible, yet they are transformed and reimagined as artworks, artefacts, or subtle provocations. Alongside his better-known sculptural pieces, the exhibition features a selection of intimate gouache on paper works from his Exile series (2022–2025). Created between London and São Paulo during a period of personal transition, these small, portable pieces act as diaristic fragments—visual letters painted in pigment that map the emotional and spatial experience of moving between places.
Brian Griffiths is a sculptor who transforms everyday materials and outdated objects into fictional, often absurd worlds. He uses dumb objects as a way to imaginatively travel: “I make art to pretend to be other, in hope to be elsewhere.” This is an approach to making as a means of escape – one that embraces pretence, disguises, players, genres, and artifice.
As much an exhibition-maker as a sculptor, Griffiths seeks to gather and connect things – setting up fictional cues for associative thinking and the messiness of feeling. His work favours awkwardness over elegance, and sincerity over perfection. It offers an alternative to monumentality – one based not on permanence or authority, but on the honesty and peculiarity of human experience.
In Home with a Man, Griffiths continues his No No to Knock-Knocks series (2018–), which centres on a puppet-like wooden figure all weathered, exposed, and seemingly not quite fit for purpose. Part tragic hero, part broken toy, the little man clunks his way through seemingly purposeless tasks. Here, he repeatedly appears, posing in leatherette portable landscapes of executive briefcases. Griffiths also presents new sculptures that dress the exhibition as a staged and provisional event. Nesting suitcases unfold to reveal a sequence of scaled dramas; and hammers hang out not only as elegant forms but as pragmatic weights and loaded metaphors.
This exhibition is curated by Maria do Carmo M. P. de Pontes.
Notes to Editors
Alexandre da Cunha (born 1969, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) lives and works between London, UK, and São Paulo, Brazil.
Alexandre da Cunha graduated with a master’s degree from Chelsea College of Art, London, in 2000. Prior to that, he studied at the Royal College of Art, London, UK, and the Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, São Paulo, Brazil, graduating in 1999 and 1996 respectively.
Da Cunha’s outdoor sculptures and large-scale commissions are on permanent view in major locations globally. Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset (2021), a permanent commission for Art on the Underground, London, has been on display at Battersea Power Station Underground since 2021. The artist’s public commission Mix II (2016) – a large-scale cement drum displayed atop a concrete plinth – is situated at Rochaverá Corporate Towers in São Paulo, Brazil. Additional permanent public works can be found in the Monsoon Building, London, UK; the Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO, USA; and the Pierce Boston Tower, Boston, MA, USA.
Reflecting his broad critical acclaim, da Cunha’s work has been documented by a range of world-leading publishers. Phaidon press have featured the artist in four of their publications: Latin American Artists: From 1785 to Now (2023); Vitamin T (2019); Vitamin 3–D (2009); and Sculpture Today (2008). Additionally, he is the sole focus of the monographs Sunset Sunrise Sunset (Kerber, 2022); Arena (Thomas Dane, 2020); Monumento (Revolver, 2019); Drawing Room Confessions (2015); Alexandre da Cunha (Cobogó, 2013); and Sarah Crowner – Alexandre da Cunha (Auroras, 2023).
Exhibiting internationally, da Cunha has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including: Broken, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, UK (2023); Laissez-Faire, Camden Arts Centre, London (2009); Duplex, Brighton CCA, Brighton, UK (2021); Arena, Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples, Italy (2020); Alexandre da Cunha, Le Grand Café Centre d’Art Contemporain, Saint-Nazaire, France (2012); These Days, James Cohan, New York, NY, USA (2024); Amazons, CRG Gallery, New York, NY (2015); Alexandre da Cunha, Frieze New York, NY (2013); Passengers, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA (2007); Plaza Project, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL, USA (2015); Portal, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil (2020); Duble, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo (2011); and Alexandre da Cunha, Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (2005).
Da Cunha’s work has been exhibited in biennials and triennials worldwide, including the 30th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil (2012); 2nd San Juan Triennial, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2009); IV Bienal de Jafre, Girona, Spain (2009); 2nd Prague Biennale, Prague, Czech Republic (2005); 50th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2003); Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK (2002); and EV+A Biennial, Limerick, Ireland (2000).
Additionally, da Cunha’s work has featured in group exhibitions across prominent international galleries, such as Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK; Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, USA; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France; Museo Madre, Naples, Italy; and Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín (MAMM), Medellín, Columbia.
Da Cunha’s work has been acquired for esteemed private and institutional collections by the likes of the Tate Collection, London, UK; Zabludowicz Collection, London; The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, UK; Fenix Museum, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Ellipse Foundation Contemporary Art Collection, Cascais, Portugal; Frac Basse Normandie, Caen, France; Fondazione Memmo, Rome, Italy; CIFO – Cisneros Collection, Miami FL, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art., Boston MA, USA; Pierce Boston Collection, Boston, MA; Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MI, USA; The Speed Art Museum, Louisville KN, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Rennie Collection, Vancouver, Canada; Centro de Arte Contemporânea de Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; and Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Brian Griffiths (born 1968, Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK) lives and works in Colchester and London, UK.
Brian Griffiths graduated with an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, London, UK, in 1996, and a BA from the University of Humberside, Kingston upon Hull, UK, in 1992. In 2022, Griffiths was elected as an RA (Royal Academician) by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK.
Crummy Love, a fully illustrated monograph on Griffiths, was published in 2011 by König Books. The publication presents an overview of the artist’s significant exhibitions and commissions over his career, examining the iconic works for which the artist is celebrated today.
Griffiths has produced commissions for several notable cultural institutions. In 2007, Art on the Underground, London, commissioned Griffiths to create Life is a Laugh (2007), a 70-metre-long, site-specific sculptural installation. The work – comprising a 7.5-meter-wide panda head, a 1970s caravan, and a pile of used mattresses, among other eclectic objects – was displayed at Gloucester Road Underground Station. Further commissions have been issued by Brent Biennale, London; A Foundation, Liverpool; Arnolfini, Bristol; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK; Van Gogh House, London.
Exhibiting globally, Griffiths has shown work across the UK, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Albania, Belgium, Israel, the USA, Brazil, and China.
Griffiths has participated in several significant solo exhibitions, namely No No to Knock-Knocks, Blain Southern Gallery, London (2018); BILL MURRAY: a story of distance, size and sincerity, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2015); Brian Griffiths: Borrowed World, Borrowed Eyes, Tramway, Glasgow, UK (2013); The Man Who Loved Islands, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2007); Taking Sides, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo (2019), Brazil; My Beloved Traitor, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo (2004); and Some Unaccountable Blindness, The Breeder, Athens, Greece (2004). Additionally, a touring solo exhibition Beneath the Stride of Giants, Woods Art Institute, Hamburg, Germany (2025), Fabrica, Brighton, UK (2007), and Camden Arts Centre, London (2004).
Griffiths has also exhibited across a number of major institutions, including the Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2020, 2019, 2008); Tate Britain, London (2014, 2010, 2009); Barbican Centre, London (2012, 2000); Camden Arts Centre, London (2004); The Saatchi Gallery, London, (2004, 1999); Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK (2001); Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (1998); Hayward Touring Exhibition, UK and Europe (2011, 2010, 2009); Jeu De Paume Museum, Paris, France (2022); CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (2009); David Zwirner, New York, USA (2013); The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, USA (2010); Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil (2024, 2019, 2205, 2002); and Museu de Arte de Belém, Belém, Brazil (2004).
Griffiths’ work has been acquired for the public collections of Tate Collection, London, UK; Royal Academy of Arts Collection, London, UK; Saatchi Collection, London; V22 Collection, London; The Zabludowicz Collection, London; Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge; Arts Council Collection, UK; Woods Art Institute, Hamburg, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilla y León, León, Spain; Cisneros Fontanals Collection, Miami, USA; Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellin, Medellin, Columbia; BBVA Collection, Bogotá, Columbia; JUMEX Collection, Mexico City, Mexico; Creative Cities Collection, China; and APT Collection, Global. The artist is also part of numerous international private collections.
Alexandre da Cunha and Brian Griffiths: Home with a Man will run from 15th August – 28th September 2025, at Elizabeth Xi Bauer’s Exmouth Market location. We are pleased to announce that Elizabeth Xi Bauer’s Exmouth Market gallery has extended opening hours, open Wednesday to Sunday, from 12-6 pm, extended to 8 pm on Thursdays. A Private View will be held on 14th August 2025, 6 – 8 pm. The artists will be available for interviews.
