Laura Lima

Artist-in-Residence

Laura Lima spent her 2010 residency immersing herself in the atmosphere and daily life of the Gardner Museum. The Carriage House had recently been demolished, so in the absence of an artist apartment, Lima was staying off-site. On her morning visits to the Museum, before the galleries were open to the public, Lima photographed extensively in the galleries. She was fascinated by the Courtyard and its plants. She looked at materials in the Archives and books from the collection including a 1510 edition of the Small Passion, a portable devotional book with 34 woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer illustrating the life of Christ. Lima also took weekend trips to New York City and to MassMOCA in North Adams, MA, and attended many programs and lectures in the Boston area.

Laura Lima is a multimedia artist who frequently uses the human body as a conduit for sculpture, performance, painting, and installation. With each piece, Lima seeks to reinvent viewers’ understanding of their preexisting social relationships and behaviors while offering a unique aesthetic encounter. Lima is a cofounder (with Marcio Botner and Ernesto Neto) of the artist-run gallery A Gentil Carioca in Rio de Janeiro. She has had solo exhibitions at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; Fondazione Prada, Milan; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; the Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires; and the National Gallery of Denmark, among others. Lima lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.