jaime lauriano

Through videos, installations, objects and texts, Jaime Lauriano (b. 1985, São Paulo, Brazil) explores symbols, images and myths that shape the imagination of Brazilian society, placing them in dialogue critical statements that reveal how the colonial structures of the past reverberate in contemporary necropolitics. Drawing from his own experience as a black man, Lauriano addresses the forms of everyday violence that have permeated Brazilian history since its invasion by the Portuguese and has focused, most unjustly, on non-white individuals. In this sense, the artist focuses on the historical traumas of Brazilian culture, understanding their complexities through the agency of images and discourses from the most diverse sources, whether from those considered official, such as communication vehicles and State propaganda; or unofficial ones, like videos of lynchings shared over the internet.

His criticism extends from the macropolitics of the spheres of official power,to micropolitics. Lauriano thinks about trauma not only in terms of temporality, but also spatially, using cartography to question colonial territorial disputes and constructions. Another dimension of his work is the connection with ancestral religions of African origin. The artist uses signs and symbols of the rituals of these religions, such as the white pemba, used in the making of his maps. Lauriano understands how the religious sphere was fundamental for the resistance of those that were enslaved and served as a space for maintaining their connection with their ancestral territory. 

Jaime Lauriano was born in 1985 in São Paulo, where he lives and works. His solo exhibitions include: Paraíso da miragem, in collaboration with collective silence, at the Kubik Gallery (2022), in Porto, Portugal; Marcas, at Fundação Joaquim Nabuco (Fundaj) (2018), in Recife, Brazil; Brinquedo de furar moletom, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Niterói (MAC-Niterói) (2018), in Niterói, Brazil; Nessa terra, em se plantando, tudo dá, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB-RJ) (2015), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Impedimento, at Centro Cultural São Paulo (CCSP) (2014), in São Paulo, Brazil. Lauriano presented works at the 37th Panorama of Brazilian Art, São Paulo, Brazil (2022); and at the 11th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2018). He has also participated in various group exhibitions, such as:  Brasil Futuro: as formas da democracia, Museu Nacional da República, Brasília, Brazil (2023); Social Fabric: Art and Activism in Contemporary Brazil, Visual Arts Center, The University of Texas, Austin, USA (2022); Histórias brasileiras, at the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) (2022), in São Paulo, Brazil; Afro-Atlantic Histories, at the National Gallery of Art (2022), in Washington DC, USA and at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH) (2022), in Houston, USA; Quem não luta tá morto – arte democracia utopia, at the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) (2018), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Levantes, at SESC Pinheiros (2017), in São Paulo, Brazil; Territórios: Artistas afrodescendentes no acervo da Pinacoteca at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (2015), in São Paulo, Brazil. His works can be found in institutional collections, such as: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco (Fundaj), Recife, Brazil; Rio Art Museum (MAR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; and Schoepflin Stiftung, Lörrach, Germany.