In the heart of São Paulo, a powerful voice is emerging from Brazil’s art scene. Rosana Paulino, a 57-year-old Afro-Brazilian artist, is confronting her country’s painful past and challenging its present struggles with racism and inequality. Through her multifaceted work – spanning embroidery, sculpture, painting, and beyond – Paulino is suturing together the threads of history, identity, and social justice.
Assentamento: Confronting a Racist Legacy
One of Paulino’s most striking pieces, Assentamento, was born from a disturbing encounter with history. In 2011, she stumbled upon 19th-century photographs of a naked Black woman, commissioned by a Harvard professor to support his racist theories. “The images affected me deeply,” Paulino recalls, “but I didn’t know what to do with them.”
A year and a half later, she transformed those degrading images into a powerful work of art. Printed life-size on fabric, the photographs are adorned with embroidery and “sutured” together, their misaligned edges representing the scars borne by generations of Black Brazilians. Flanked by mounds of clay arms, Assentamento speaks to the consumption of Black bodies as fuel for Brazil’s growth.
If these photographs were taken to showcase a false inferiority… I want to demonstrate that, despite being kidnapped and thrown into the hold of a ship, those individuals survived and still managed to build a nation.
– Rosana Paulino
A Universal Struggle
Paulino’s work, while rooted in Brazil’s history, resonates globally. According to curator Andrea Giunta, the themes she grapples with – slavery, racism, social injustice – are “universal in a geographical sense and in terms of social justice.” From Germany to the US to Italy, Paulino’s exhibitions are sparking vital conversations.
This year, Paulino will unveil a 9-metre-tall mural at New York’s High Line, and London’s prestigious Tate Modern is acquiring one of her pieces. In November, she’ll receive the inaugural Munch Award for artistic freedom. The jury praised Paulino as “a leading voice in black feminism, with a steadfast commitment to the struggle of afro-Brazilian communities and the ongoing fight against racism.”
From the Margins to the Spotlight
Paulino’s journey to international recognition was far from easy. Born in a working-class São Paulo neighborhood, she was the first Black Brazilian woman to earn a PhD in visual arts. “To have an academic validation was a strategy I devised so that my voice could be heard,” she explains. “Brazilian art has always been very white and elitist.”
While representation has improved in recent years, Paulino emphasizes that change wasn’t handed out willingly. “Brazilian institutions were forced to act because they were experiencing international embarrassment, with an entirely white and Eurocentric market that ignored its own country,” she asserts.
Stitching the Future
Now, with global acclaim and the freedom to focus solely on her art, what’s next for Paulino? “I want to spend time in my studio, producing, researching and experimenting,” she shares. She also plans to establish an institute in São Paulo, serving as an image library and study center documenting representations of Black people.
Above all, Paulino yearns for the day when she can create without the constant pressure to be political, a burden rarely placed on white artists. “We don’t see this same kind of pressure on white artists,” she points out. Until then, she’ll continue stitching together Brazil’s past and present, crafting a future where Black voices are celebrated, not silenced.
