{"id":2210864,"date":"2026-10-21T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2210864"},"modified":"2026-10-21T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:00:00","slug":"rosana-paulinos-pantheon-of-black-plant-goddesses-arrives-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2210864","title":{"rendered":"Rosana Paulino\u2019s Pantheon of Black Plant Goddesses Arrives in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Rosana-Paulino_Foto-de-Rodrigo-Ladeira_2.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe growing visibility of Rosana Paulino\u2019s work reaches a new chapter with the opening this week of her first solo exhibition in Paris, at Mendes Wood DM\u2019s outpost in the French capital.<\/p>\n

\n\tTitled \u201cBloom in the Sunlight, Dream in the Moonlight,\u201d the exhibition introduces new plant goddesses into the Afro-botanical pantheon Paulino has been building since 2019 as part of her ongoing series \u201cSenhora das Plantas\u201d (Lady of the Plants), which elevates Black women to the status of goddesses in communion with nature, without implying a romanticized view. The 16 paintings\u2014five on paper and 12 on canvas\u2014take on renewed vitality on a larger scale and via a deeper exploration of color and increasingly ingenious bodily poses.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe central question guiding Paulino\u2019s work has long been \u201cWhat is it like to be a Black woman in Brazil?\u201d Active since the 1990s, she had seemingly answered it, until 2018, through an indictment of the enduring consequences of slavery in Brazilian society in works like Parede da Mem\u00f3ria<\/em> (Memory Wall, 1994), which engages with the extensive gaps in the family trees of Black Brazilian families, and Assentamento<\/em> (Settlement, 2013), three photographs of an enslaved Black woman printed on fabric that she fragmented and stitched back together, adding a heart and a baby. Appropriated from images taken by Auguste Stahl and taken during the 1865\u201366 Thayer Expedition to Brazil, Paulino\u2019s gesture aimed to restore the woman\u2019s humanity and history from a set of photographs made to substantiate claims of racial degeneration supposedly caused by racial mixing.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt a 2018 retrospective at the Pinacoteca de S\u00e3o Paulo, Paulino debuted a series of drawings from the early 2000s that anticipate the psychological exploration seen later in the goddesses of Senhora das Plantas<\/em>.\u201d Marked by restless lines, these works depict a woman tentatively emerging from a cocoon in a ritual of transformation and emancipation. \u201cDrawing is a central foundation of Rosana\u2019s practice; it sheds light on her imagination. Forms and ideas that she develops through drawing later acquire spatiality,\u201d Val\u00e9ria Piccoli, the exhibition\u2019s cocurator, told ARTnews<\/em>. \u201cIt was important to emphasize that she was the first voice in the 1990s to speak about the issue of Black women, but also to highlight that this was part of a much broader context of her interests and desires.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rosana Paulino, Comigo ningu\u00e9m pode, da s\u00e9rie Senhora das Plantas | Comigo ningu\u00e9m pode (Dumb Cane \/ \u201cDon\u2019t mess with me\u201d)<\/em>, from the \u201cLady of the Plants series,\u201d 2026. <\/span>Photo: Gui Gomes\/Courtesy the artist and Mendes Wood DM, S\u00e3o Paulo, Brussels, Paris, New York<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tLess than a year later, she would show the earliest iteration of her botanical goddesses. A different sensibility had emerged: The figures, drawn in earth tones, were nude, but the hypersexualization of the Black female body was nowhere to be found. Instead, the works suggested a new way of conceiving wisdom and communion with nature. The series has its roots in the plants Paulino keeps in her studio. Before she named them goddesses, she initially called the plants in the series\u2019 early works \u201cfolhas\u201d (leaves).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI gradually realized that it couldn\u2019t be that simple: plants have a history, so I began to approach them more specifically,\u201d Paulino explained in a recent interview in her studio, noting that she began the series because she could find no Black goddesses in books devoted to the sacred feminine.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe started first with snake plants (Espada de Ians\u00e3<\/em> in Portuguese). \u201cThen I turned my attention to the jatob\u00e1 tree,\u201d she added. Works from the series soon appeared in the world\u2019s two oldest recurring exhibitions: the 2022 and 2026 Venice Biennales and the 2023 Bienal de S\u00e3o Paulo. For S\u00e3o Paulo, Paulino moved from watercolor on paper to painting on canvas, scaling her drawings up to nearly 9 feet by 20 feet. Next, she introduced the mangrove. The goddesses in these paintings have a serene air, with roots firmly anchored in the earth, but also a crown of leaves that sway with the wind.<\/p>\n

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Rosana Paulino, Gar\u00e7a branca, Da s\u00e9rie mangue<\/em>, 2023<\/span>Photo: EstudioEmObra\/Courtesy the artist and Mendes Wood DM, S\u00e3o Paulo, Brussels, Paris, New York<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThis year, her investigation into Comigo Ningu\u00e9m Pode<\/em> (scientifically known as Dieffenbachia<\/em>), a toxic plant also associated with spiritual protection, lend the Brazilian Pavilion its title. The pavilion\u2019s curator Diane Lima first saw the works at Mendes Wood DM\u2019s New York space, which had \u201cthe day and night series, in which Rosana paints and draws against a black background. I had never seen these works in person before. They convey a sense of mystery and magic; there is a certain aurality to them that truly moves us,\u201d she said of her decision to include work form this series in Venice. \u201cAnd it had that same impact in Italy. It is the exhibition\u2019s great amulet, and it\u2019s no coincidence that it is positioned right at the entrance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tApproaching them as if she is still drawing at a table, Paulino lays flat her canvases, which she prepares with gesso mixture to seals the weave so they behave more like paper when she adds watercolor and acrylic on their surfaces. Her decision to work horizontally, however, also reflects a conceptual choice. \u201cI\u2019m not going to reproduce the watercolor brushstrokes on canvas. But at the same time, this idea of vertical painting is very Western. [\u2026] My thing is to work on a table,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Rosana Paulino, Trombeta de Anjo, da s\u00e9rie Senhora das Plantas | Angel\u2019s Trumpet<\/em>, from the \u201cLady of the Plants\u201d series, 2026. <\/span>Photo: EstudioEmObra\/Courtesy the artist and Mendes Wood DM, S\u00e3o Paulo, Brussels, Paris, New York<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tHer plant goddesses have recently become more ambiguous as she has become interested in species that thrive in shade or offer it, like Comigo Ningu\u00e9m Pode. <\/em>And Paulino\u2019s research into plantas de poder<\/em> (plants of power), used for spiritual protection in Afro-Brazilian religious traditions, has only deepened, the relationship between her plants and the cycles of day and night becoming more expansive.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Paris, she will show what she is calling \u201cnocturnal\u201d canvases featuring new goddesses\u2014or new versions of existing ones\u2014associated with angel\u2019s trumpet (Brugmansia<\/em>). A genus known for its exuberant flowers in a range of colors\u2014white, salmon, purple, lilac, pink\u2014they possess a particular luminosity that makes the petals seem, in a sense, translucent. Their alluring quality belies their extreme toxicity; at times used as a hallucinogen, their ingestion can cause severe mental confusion and even death.<\/p>\n

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Rosana Paulino, Sem t\u00edtulo, da s\u00e9rie Senhora das Plantas | Untitled<\/em>, from the \u201cLady of the Plants series,\u201d 2026.<\/span>Photo: Gui Gomes\/Courtesy the artist and Mendes Wood DM, S\u00e3o Paulo, Brussels, Paris, New York<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tPaulino is drawn to this duality: \u201cIt\u2019s a plant with a certain weight to it\u2014a size, a scent. But it\u2019s one of the most dangerous plants there is. Many people have lost their lives after ingesting teas containing it.\u201d In Angel\u2019s trumpet <\/em>(2026), a figure sits on the ground, roots dangling from her knees. Branches emerge from her eyes, bearing the plant\u2019s trumpet-shaped flowers. In her seduction, this goddess exudes strength. An untitled 2026 work, featuring a bromeliad goddess, inhabits a different atmosphere. The seated figure twists her torso in a yoga-like pose, while leaves emerge from her mouth as if she had been chattering animatedly. Her expression is gentle, and her hair cropped short, with a texture resembling tightly coiled hair. Paulino achieved this effect using a tool she made herself: a branch with a sponge attached to its tip.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou don\u2019t need long, flowing hair to be a goddess,\u201d she said. \u201cMy series \u2018Senhoras das Plantas\u2019 exists because woman is an archetype that the West cannot fully comprehend,\u201d the artist concludes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/artists\/rosana-paulino-mendes-wood-dm-paris-exhibition-1234803173\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Rosana-Paulino_Foto-de-Rodrigo-Ladeira_2.jpg?w=1024″] The growing visibility of Rosana Paulino\u2019s work reaches a new chapter with the opening this week of her first solo exhibition in Paris, at Mendes Wood DM\u2019s outpost in the French capital. Titled \u201cBloom in the Sunlight, Dream in the Moonlight,\u201d the exhibition introduces new plant goddesses into the Afro-botanical pantheon Paulino […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2210864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2210864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2210864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2210864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2210864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}