Laura Lima: I Hope This Finds You Well

“I Hope This Finds You Well” marks the first solo exhibition in the United States of the Brazilian artist Laura Lima, highlighting the complexity of her artistic investigation. Always defying any categorisation or hierarchy, her work is based on the general idea of the equality of humans, animals and even spaces, as the artist does not recognise any difference between matter and flesh.

On view in the gallery different series of works. “Tailor Shop” is a fully functioning tailoring workshop, involving a team of local tailors who produce portraits as garments. These reinterpret Lima’s abstract portrait drawings of friends, family, historical figures, and people who have inspired her. The series “Wrong Drawings” features new works, composed by natural cotton and pieces of charcoal: over time, the coal begins to dye the works. Finally, the series “Nomads” arises from the collaboration between the artist and a copyist: following Lima’s instructions, he reproduces centuries-old landscape paintings, subtly modifying and translating the scenes. The artist then folds and cuts the canvases, using them as masks hiding the human subjects of her final works. Removing them from the scene, the artist invites viewers to imagine the humans behind the masks.