Diálogos do Dia e da Noite

Nature and art are two subjects that have fascinated Rosana Paulino from an early age. Drawn to the study of biology, Paulino considered turning her passion into a career but decided instead to follow another lifelong calling to pursue a degree in visual arts. These two systems of knowledge have persisted in her personal and professional life ever since. As an artist, Rosana Paulino has created, investigated, lectured, and written about the presences and absences of Black representation in Brazilian society. Throughout her practice, she has continued to challenge perceptions and re-inscribe history, attributing new roles for Black women in Brazil in particular. Through her art, Paulino has challenged centuries of systematic prejudice that have consistently excluded Afro-Brazilian heritage from public memory. In addition, it has always remained clear to her that it’s inconceivable to consider Black emancipation as detached from an embedded belonging in nature – clear, too, that the construction of an inclusive future is grounded upon ecological awareness and reconnection with natural systems that have been historically severed from marginalized communities. In Diálogos do Dia e da Noite [Dialogues of the Day and of the Night] the artist presents a series of new paintings, set in nightly or nocturnal environments, that challenge historical subjectivities of Black women. Inspired by the possibilities of nightfall and against a backdrop of dreams, Paulino returns to archetypes, female bastions, goddesses or guides, many of which emerge from her ongoing series Senhora das Plantas. This time, these women-like figures with limbs sprawling into tree roots, hair growing as leaves, or fingers blossoming into flowers, stand, crawl, or kneel in darkness. Emerging at night, they confront viewers with the mysteries that exist in the darkest hours, forming a botanical mythos that is at once attractive and deceiving.

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47 Walker Street

New York, NY