Rosana Paulino Adds New Plant Goddesses in Paris Show
Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino is introducing new plant goddesses to her ongoing series in her first solo exhibition in Paris.
The show is called Bloom in the Sunlight, Dream in the Moonlight. It is held at the Paris branch of Mendes Wood DM, a commercial gallery, meaning a business that shows and sells art. The gallery also has spaces in São Paulo, Brussels and New York. According to ARTnews, the exhibition opened in the week of October 21, 2026.
The works come from Senhora das Plantas, which translates as "Lady of the Plants." Paulino began the series in 2019. Her gallery describes it as a set of women and plant figures, with webs of roots and leaves spreading from women's bodies. In Paris, she adds new figures to what she calls an Afro-botanical pantheon, a group of gods and goddesses that draws on African diaspora traditions and the natural world.
The Paris show gathers new paintings and drawings, all dated 2026. Mendes Wood DM's exhibition page lists the run as October 19 to December 19, 2026. Valéria Piccoli is cocurator, the ARTnews report says.
Paulino was born in 1967 in São Paulo, where she still lives and works, according to the gallery's artist page. Her gallery says her work centres on social, ethnic and gender questions, with a focus on Black women in Brazilian society. The gallery also notes that she was drawn to biology from an early age, and that nature and art have fascinated her since childhood.
The Senhora das Plantas works have travelled widely. ARTnews reports that pieces from the series appeared at the 2022 and 2026 Venice Biennales, the major international art exhibitions held in Venice, Italy, and at the 2023 Bienal de São Paulo. The gallery's exhibition page makes a similar point about its reach.
For visitors in Paris, the show is open until mid-December. For the gallery, it is one more step in a series that has now been shown across three continents. The artist announced the opening on Instagram with a short post, "Opening today in Paris."
Images that accompany the ARTnews report are credited to photographer Gui Gomes and to the artist and Mendes Wood DM.
