Avila do Espirito Santo

ILU RODA

Opening Reception: Wednesday, May 6th, 6 – 8 pm

Exhibition on view: May 6 – May 14, 2027

On view gallery hours: Mon – Friday, 10am – 4 pm

Roski Graduate Gallery (Los Angeles Arts District) 1262 Palmetto St, Los Angeles, CA 90013

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

ILU RODA is a multimedia installation and senior thesis exhibition by Avila do Espirito Santo. In this exhibition do Espirito Santo speculates on multipresence, movement and sound in trans-atlantic blackness. Diagrammatic sculptures invoke polyrhythmic drumming and reference practices of the Kongo Yowa and Babalawo Ifá. A series of welded metal works draw inspiration from residential gates in Salvador, Bahia while simultaneously paying homage to his blacksmith grandfather and the Orisa Ogun. A new series of video and sound compositions recorded during trips between Brasil and the US weave through the structure of the gallery space, musing on multipresence and both his connection and separation from Brasil as an Afro-Brasileiro born and raised in Los Angeles.

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Avila do Espirito Santo (b. 1991, Los Angeles, CA) is a multi-disciplinary artist specializing in music and sound. He graduated with honors from Berklee College of Music in 2014 with a B.A in Professional Music and Latin Percussion and is currently an MFA candidate at the USC Roski School of Art & Design. He is a drummer and professor of Capoeira through Capoeira Batuque in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil and in Los Angeles. Avila is also an Awo of Isese Ifa, initiated into the Adesanya lineage of Ode Remo in Nigeria. He uses rhythm as the foundation and guiding philosophy for his music compositions, writing, image making and performance work. He is interested in the ways that drumming deepens our relationship to the natural world, diasporic movement and to non-linear time. Avila has had his music commissioned for projects with A24, LACMA, HBO, Sony Music, Ghetto Film School and Creative Capital amongst others. He has collaborated with other artists such as Khalil Joseph, Terence Nance and Allison Saar. He has also been a recipient of multiple grants, fellowships and awards including the Pioneer Works Artist Residency, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Artist Residency, Sony Music Emerging Composers Fellowship and was a semifinalist for the Sundance Composer’s Lab. Avila was recently awarded a USC Dornsife Center for Ethnographic Media Arts (CEMA) Fellowship for 2026-2027.