José Adário dos Santos. “Exu Feminino”. 2020
Wrought-iron sculpture
About the artist
Born in 1947 in the Caixa D'Água neighbourhood of Salvador, José Adário dos Santos is today one of Bahia's foremost ferreiros de santo — blacksmiths of the saints. He was just eleven when he arrived at the Ladeira da Conceição da Praia to learn the trade in the workshop of his master and mentor, Maximiano Prates.
Since then he has made gates, agogôs and ritual ironwork: percussion instruments and iron sculptures that mediate between people and the gods in candomblé. It was while carrying these pieces to the old Mercado Modelo that he earned his working nickname: seeing him carry the tools of Exu in a box, passers-by would taunt him — “there goes the devil”, “come here, devil”. The insult angered him and trouble would start. And so the nickname stuck, becoming adopted and respected: José Adário dos Santos, “Zé Diabo”.
Drawing on the customs of candomblé, the canons of Yoruba art and the different expressions made possible by iron, Zé Diabo produces sublime iron sculptures that circulate through terreiros, museums, collections and galleries, giving life to sacred entities and engaging the ferrous power of his ancestors and of Ogum, who governs his work with iron.