A new chapter for "Senhora das Plantas"
Rosana Paulino's first solo exhibition in Paris opens this week at Mendes Wood DM. Titled "Bloom in the Sunlight, Dream in the Moonlight," the show expands "Senhora das Plantas", an ongoing series the Brazilian artist began in 2019.
Across new paintings on paper and canvas, Paulino imagines Black women as goddesses in close connection with the natural world. The works bring plant forms into dialogue with human bodies, using vivid color, shifting poses and motifs drawn from species including angel's trumpet and bromeliads.
The series grew from Paulino's interest in the plants she kept in her studio and in the histories and spiritual meanings attached to them. Her research also engages with Afro-Brazilian traditions, where certain plants are associated with spiritual protection. The figures offer an alternative to familiar representations of Black women, centering presence, imagination and transformation.
Paulino's broader practice has long examined the experiences of Black women in Brazil. In this series, that inquiry takes a botanical direction, bringing together identity, cultural memory and the rhythms of nature.
As the series reaches new audiences in Paris, it shows how contemporary art can create fresh space for histories and perspectives that have been overlooked, shaping a more expansive view of culture's future.
