Rosana Paulino’s work centres on social, ethnic, and gender issues, with a particular focus on Black women in Brazilian society and the various forms of violence endured by this population as a result of racism and the enduring legacy of slavery. Paulino explores the impact of memory on psychosocial structures, weaving together references that intersect her personal history with the phenomenological history of Brazil—both as it was constructed in the past and as it continues to shape the present. Her research engages with the formation of myths, not only as aesthetic foundations but also as psychic and cultural forces. Paulino—whose contribution to Brazilian art is widely regarded as fundamental—has developed a practice rooted in reconstructing images, and, beyond that, in reconstructing memory and its associated mythologies.

Her most recent solo exhibitions include The Time of Things, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels, Belgium (2022); Paraíso Tropical, The Frank Museum of Art, Otterbein University, Ohio, USA (2019); Rosana Paulino: A Costura da Memória, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil (2018); and Atlântico Vermelho, Padrão dos Descobrimentos, EGEAC, Lisbon, Portugal (2017).

Recent group exhibitions include the 59th International Biennale di Venezia – The Milk of Dreams, Venice, Italy (2022); Afro-Atlantic Histories, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA (2022); Global Positioning – Public Art Fund, New York, Boston, and Chicago, USA (2022); Brasilidade: Pós-Modernismo, CCBB, Brazil (2022); 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2020); Carolina Maria de Jesus: um Brasil para os brasileiros, Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); 21st Bienal Sesc_Videobrasil, Sesc 24 de Maio, São Paulo, Brazil (2019); Slavery in the Hands of Harvard, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA (2019); and Histórias Afro-Atlânticas, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil (2018).