José Rufino, an artist from the northern Brazilian province of Paraiba, transforms personal memories into mythological narratives. For the past ten years, he has shown himself to be a skillful manipulator of symbols, turning his own life history into small, universal testaments to solitude, pain, love, and family ties. José Rufino is actually the name of the artist’s paternal grandfather; the grandson adopted it as part of his effort to penetrate the symbolic past of his family’s patriarch, who was the owner of a large sugar plantation.

Rufino’s installations refer to his ancestry and to the