Rosana Paulino
(b. 1967)Rosana Paulino creates works on paper, paintings, sculptures, and installations. She employs the Black female figure as a central motif across her oeuvre, often repurposing existing images of Black women and inventing her own sets of mythical Black femme characters.
Biography
Paulino began her artistic practice in the 1990s while studying fine art at the University of São Paulo. She used old family photo albums as source material for her early works, producing sculptures and installations that incorporated her ancestors’ images. She later began to repurpose images from Brazil’s colonial period—especially ethnographic photography of Black subjects—in her artworks. By drawing, painting, reprinting, sewing, and collaging on top of her original image sources, Paulino makes works that confront the ongoing legacies of colonialism and slavery in Brazil.
Paulino has also produced several works depicting mythical Black femme characters. Her figures, rendered with a mix of human, animal, and vegetal characteristics, belong to a unique visual language of the artist’s own making. In creating her figures, Paulino also incorporates imagery associated with various deities—Orixás—from the Afro-Brazilian religions of Candomblé and Umbanda. She has produced multiple series with these femme figures, including her “Búfala” (Buffalo), “Jatobá,” “Mangue” (Mangrove), and "Senhora das plantas” (Lady of the Plants) series, among others.
Paulino lives and works in São Paulo. She holds a BFA and a PhD from the School of Communications and Arts (Escola de Comunicações e Artes) at the University of São Paulo (Universidade de São Paulo). The artist has been featured in solo presentations at Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Pinacotecca do Estado de São Paulo, Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro, and the High Line, New York City. The Studio Museum first acquired Paulino’s work in 2024.
Rosana Paulino
(b. 1967)Rosana Paulino creates works on paper, paintings, sculptures, and installations. She employs the Black female figure as a central motif across her oeuvre, often repurposing existing images of Black women and inventing her own sets of mythical Black femme characters.
Gêmeas, from the Jatobás series, 2023
Biography
Paulino began her artistic practice in the 1990s while studying fine art at the University of São Paulo. She used old family photo albums as source material for her early works, producing sculptures and installations that incorporated her ancestors’ images. She later began to repurpose images from Brazil’s colonial period—especially ethnographic photography of Black subjects—in her artworks. By drawing, painting, reprinting, sewing, and collaging on top of her original image sources, Paulino makes works that confront the ongoing legacies of colonialism and slavery in Brazil.
Paulino has also produced several works depicting mythical Black femme characters. Her figures, rendered with a mix of human, animal, and vegetal characteristics, belong to a unique visual language of the artist’s own making. In creating her figures, Paulino also incorporates imagery associated with various deities—Orixás—from the Afro-Brazilian religions of Candomblé and Umbanda. She has produced multiple series with these femme figures, including her “Búfala” (Buffalo), “Jatobá,” “Mangue” (Mangrove), and "Senhora das plantas” (Lady of the Plants) series, among others.
Paulino lives and works in São Paulo. She holds a BFA and a PhD from the School of Communications and Arts (Escola de Comunicações e Artes) at the University of São Paulo (Universidade de São Paulo). The artist has been featured in solo presentations at Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Pinacotecca do Estado de São Paulo, Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro, and the High Line, New York City. The Studio Museum first acquired Paulino’s work in 2024.