“Nascituras: someone or something yet to be born. The decision to name the exhibition of an artist as prominent as Rosana Paulino Nascituras (nascencies) may seem strange. After all, what could this concept refer to in light of one of the most substantial, striking careers in so-called Brazilian art? A career based on 30 years of daily labor in the realms of her métier. A career that is characterized by recurrent engagement with pivotal exhibitions in contemporary art, as seen in the last two editions of the Venice and São Paulo Biennials.

Here, several nascencies, breeding grounds, and birthgivings unfold. In one visit – one of many throughout the years – to Rosana’s atelier, I was able to witness a moment that revealed much of the creative thinking underpinning Paulino’s artistic production. I step in and come across a large table. Lying on it are many sheets of paper containing the studies that would evolve into the Nascituras series exhibited here. Rosana tells me that when arranged side by side in that manner, she is able to visualize each of the drawings as if she had a large notebook laid open before her. One of many moments of a continuous state of becoming, which imposes itself in the workshops of artists deeply dedicated to their formal explorations.

At the moment, some of the prominent features pervading her work come to the fore: the drawing, which has been developed over a long time, invades thousands of pages belonging to the different momentums that form Rosana Paulino’s archive. This drawing, characterized with its own language, is where the line, a commonplace element of expression in Paulino’s arsenal, emerges in between areas of watery colors.

In these works, the very definition of drawing expands, seeking to come close to what, at first, flirts with concepts more frequently associated with painting. But, according to the artist, we are still standing in front of a drawing. On these sheets of paper, on a second visit, I could already encounter them – these entity-women, women of various times and natures.” – Igor Simões - Curator, art historian, researcher of the artist’s work.

Rosana Paulino’s work centers around social, ethnic, and gender issues, focusing in particular on black women in Brazilian society and the various types of violence suffered by this population due to racism and the lasting legacy of slavery. Paulino explores the impact of memory on psychosocial constructions, introducing different references that intersect the artist’s personal history with the phenomenological history of Brazil, as it was constructed in the past and still persists today. Her research includes the construction of myths – not only as aesthetical pillars but also as psychic influence-makers. Paulino – whose artistic output is unquestionably fundamental to Brazilian art – has produced a practice of reconstructing images and, beyond that, reconstructing memory and its mythologies. Her body of works brings together female figures and their respective historical elements, supported by psychic traces that map colonial structures and their impact onto the social and aesthetic fabric of our time.

More information on the event can be found here.