Rosana Paulino is the recipient of the 2025–2027 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice, nominated by Diane Lima as part of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics’ Matter of Intelligence Focus Theme.

Rosana Paulino is a Brazilian artist and curator whose work explores themes of gender, colonialism, and ancestry. She is especially interested in probing the lasting legacies of slavery in Brazil, often by interrogating the image of the Black woman in Brazilian culture. She studied printmaking and art at the Comunidades e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo. She later returned to complete a PhD, becoming the first Afro-Brazilian woman to earn a PhD in visual arts. She has also studied printmaking at Print Studio in London, UK, on an APARTES/CAPES scholarship.

Her recent exhibitions are Diálogos do Dia e da Noite, Mendes Wood DM, New York (2025); Novas Raízes, Casa Museu Eva Klabin, Rio de Janeiro (2024); Amefricana, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires (2024); Nascituras, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2023). Recent selected group exhibitions include: Decolonial Expression(s), Musée d’Histoire de Nantes, Nantes, France (2026); Comigo ninguém pode, 61st International Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2026); A Kind of Paradise, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Switzerland (2026); Joaquín Torres García, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília, Brazil (2026); and Nude with attitude, Museum Arnhem, Arnhem, Netherlands (2026). Her works are held in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo (MAM-SP), the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, and the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP); Malba Uni. New Mexico/USA; Afro Brazil Museum Emanoel Araújo and Centre Pompidou, and her significant accolades include a MUNCH award in 2024 and a Konex award in 2022. She is the recipient of the 2025–2027 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice, awarded by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.

Image credit: Rosana Paulino. Photo by Gabriela Portilho for the New York Times.