Laura Belém, Anekdota, 2015. Installation/Construction of mixed media, glass tiles, earth, natural grass and natural plants. Dimensions, 160 m2. Photo credit Everton Balardin.
Laura Belém (Brazil) works in a range of media, including installation, sculpture, photography, sound and collage. Her works are often context-responsive and many times site-specific. She takes inspiration by the cultural or historical characteristics of a place, or by nature and everyday life. Laura combines the observation of a place with new layers of perception and meaning, and she uses the gaps often found within history for the creation of fictional narratives. Within this context, ideas of presence and absence have been central in her process, and so have other derived concepts such as memory, displacement, time and transience.
During her residency at Delfina, Laura will use the residency as platform for experimentation, exchange and incubation of new ideas and projects. She will let the work be defined through contact with the place, as context and site-specificity are important starting points for her creative process. She intends to use the city as a studio space and explore ideas of public and private spaces.
Laura holds a MA in Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London, and a BA from School of Fine Arts at the Federal University in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Previous awards include: a Pampulha Scholarship from Pampulha Art Museum (Belo Horizonte, 2003-4); a CIFO Grants and Commissions Program award in the ‘Emerging Recipients’ category from The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (Miami, 2011); and the CNI SESI Marcantonio Vilaça Visual Arts Award (Brasília, 2011-12).
Previous exhibitions include: 2018 – O Lugar do Centro (Central Galeria, São Paulo); 2017 – Tempo Presente (Espaço Cultural Porto Seguro, São Paulo); 2016 – Transparência e reflexo(MUBE/Museu Brasileiro da Escultura, São Paulo); A spear, a spike, a point, a nail, a drip, a drop, the end of the tale (Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam); The Spirit of Each Time (Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil); 2014 – Limited Visibility (CAM Raleigh, USA); Cruzamentos: contemporary art in Brazil (Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, USA); 2013 – Love and Hate to Lygia Clark (Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland); 2012-13 – Prêmio CNI SESI Marcantônio Vilaça para as Artes Plásticas (Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Cuiabá, Macapá and Maceió, Brazil); 2011 – Viewpoint (Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, USA); Quiet Attention (Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Center, Mito-Shi, Japan); 2010-11 – The more things change (SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA); 2010 – TOUCHED: Liverpool Biennial International 10 Exhibition (Liverpool, UK); Drawings: A-Z (Museu da Cidade, Lisbon, Portugal); 2008 – Blooming (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Japan); 2007 – Extra(ordinary): New Art from Brasil (York Quay Centre, Toronto, Canada); VI Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul (Porto Alegre, Brazil); 2005 – 51st Venice Biennalle (Arsenale Galleries, Venice, Italy); 2003 – Prague Biennale (Veletrzní Palác, Prague).
With support from
THEMATIC PROGRAMME
RESIDENCY SEASON
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Please note all artist-in-residence biographies are accurate at the time of their residency. For up-to-date bios please visit the artist’s website.