Join us for the opening of Healing Leaves: The Myth of The Orisha Ossanhe by Luzia Castaneda! There will be a dance performance at 1pm by Alexandre Barranco to open the exhibition on the V&A Terrace. The art will be displayed in the V&A Gallery.

Included in Garden Admission.

More about the Exhibition:

The work began in the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania in the summer of 2020. I was painting and a leaf fell on my watercolor – it was a calling. Over the next year, I explored different forests in the USA and Brazil, looking for leaves that could create a wonderful beauty on top of my watercolor, and then took photos of these combinations. That was the inspiration to tell the Ossanhe myth through leaf paintings.

The Healing Leaves: The Myth of the Orisha Ossanhe (the Afro-Brazilian divinity of healing and mystery) is a series of 16 photographs and 21 paintings that explain the Afro-Brazilian myth of two orishas—Ossanhe and Xangô—whom both want to possess the healing powers of leaves.

This exhibition was made possible with public funds from the Queens Art Funds, a re-grant program supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts.