Laura

Lima

Laura Lima’s (b. 1971, Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais, Brazil) practice employs a variety of media often incorporating living organisms and actions that are performed for long periods of time, to explore ways in which human behaviour alters our perception of the everyday.

Since letting a cow loose on Ipanema Beach in the mid-1990s, Lima has continued to present a body of work consisting of what she sometimes describes as ‘images’. Consistently escaping easy classification, Laura Lima’s ‘images’ are ‘neither performance nor installation nor cinema’, but rather attempts to visually link, in concrete reality, a personal glossary that the artist has worked and reworked throughout the more than twenty years of her career. Another component of Lima’s work relates to the notion of ornamental philosophy. Her work seeks to propose new understandings of accepted definitions and concepts, destabilising and subverting what is taken for granted.

In 2023, 'Laura Lima: Balè Literal', a major solo exhibition was held at MACBA, which will tour to MAM Rio de Janeiro in May 2025. A dedicated publication is due to be published later in the year by Cobogó.

Lima was the recipient of the Bonnefanten Award for Contemporary Art (BACA), in 2014, and the Marcantonio Vilaça Award in 2006. The artist was also nominated for the Francophone Award in 2011 and the Han Nefkens Award in 2012. In 2003, Lima co-founded A Gentil Carioca together with Ernesto Neto and Marcio Botner, a gallery headed by artists in Rio de Janeiro, where she still serves as a board member.

Solo exhibitions include: 'How to Eat the Sun and Moon,' Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg (2024); 'Laura Lima: Balè Literal,' MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2023); 'Taylor Shop,' Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo (2018); 'Cavalo come Re’, Prada Foundation, Milan (2018); 'The Inverse,' ICA Miami (2016); 'Ágrafo,' Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo (2015); 'El Mago Desnudo,' MAMBA Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (2015); 'The Naked Magician,' National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen (2015), and 'Bonnierskonsthall,' Stockholm (2014); 'The fifth floor,' Laureate Bonnefanten, Maastricht (2014); 'The Abstraction,' Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö (2014); 'Bar/Restaurante,' Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (2013); Casa França Brasil, Rio de Janeiro (2011).

Biennales and group exhibitions include: 'Witch Hunt,' at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2021); Busan Biennial (2018); Sharjah Biennial (2019); 'Por aqui é tudo novo,' Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho (2016); Trienal de Aichi, Toyohashi (2016); Performa 15, New York (2015); '15 Rooms,' Long Museum, Shanghai (2015); 'Encruzilhada,' Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro (2015); '140 Caracteres,' Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (2014); 'Por amor a la disidencia,' MUAC Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Cidade do México (2013); 'Circuitos Cruzados – Centre Pompidou meets MAM,' Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (2013); Ruhrtriennale, Essen (2012); 11a Bienal de Lyon (2011).

Collections include: CACI Centro de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim, Brazil; MAM Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil; Bonniers Konsthall, Sweden; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Switzerland; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo.

Lima lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.