Flag Series: MAHKU, Pedro Mana, Yube Nawa Ainbu, 2025

Art at Americas Society's Flag Series is pleased to present Yube Nawa Ainbu, 2025, a new work crafted by Pedro Mana of the MAHKU collective. The title, Yube Nawa Ainbu, is a chant that portrays the mythical serpent-woman of the vine, a key figure in Huni Kuin cosmology and sacred traditions. Using vibrant colors and traditional kenê patterns, the work conveys spiritual narratives tied to the ritual use of ayahuasca (nixi pae), symbolizing healing, transformation, and ancestral wisdom.

About MAHKU

The Huni Kuin Artists Movement (MAHKU) is a collective founded in 2013, of Huni Kuin artists living in the Rio Jordão region, Brazil, near the Peru border. The collective pulls from the mythology of the western region of the Brazilian Amazon, translating and transforming chants into colorful and vivid images. It is through art, the members of the collective dialogue with non-indigenous people and strengthen their cultural and territorial autonomy. In 2024, at the 60th Venice Biennale, MAHKU presented Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere, the story of Kapewë Pukeni (the myth of the bridge alligator) on the large mural created for the façade of the Central Pavilion, the main entrance located in the Giardini.

The works of the collective are part of the collection of the Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP), Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and Fondation Cartier, in Paris. Among the exhibitions in which they participated, some that stand out include: Histoires de Voir (Fondation Cartier), Mestizo Stories (Tomie Ohtake Institute), 35th Panorama of Brazilian Art: Brazil by Multiplication (MAM-SP), Avenida Paulista (MASP), Vaivém (Cultural Center Banco do Brasil), and Vexoá: we know (Pinacoteca).

The Flag Series presents public artworks on 68th Street, furthering Americas Society’s engagement with the surrounding community in New York and creating new dialogues between artists of the Americas and our audiences.