Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1964.
Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Mercedes Lachmann’s research takes place primarily in the fields of sculpture, installation, and video. Her works explore issues related to climate change, life cycles, and the transformations of matter.
Starting in 2013, she began a long period of research with water, exploring its properties of weight, fluidity and translucency. The works unfold, establishing a fictional universe articulating propositions such as displacement, renewal and healing.
Naturally, the research with water leads the works to the vegetal world, to trees, and to medicinal and aromatic herbs. The multi-sensorial expression of plants contaminates her creative process, opening new experiments. Mercedes begins to work with various materials, media, colors, textures, movements, and sounds as a response to this impulse to expand.
With a degree in Arts from PUC (Pontifícia Universidade Católica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 1986), Mercedes continued her studies at Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage (EAV), where she studied drawing and painting from 1987 to 1988. Between 1989 and 2010, she served as director of communication and marketing and partner of the Lachmann companies. In 2011, Mercedes returned to her career in the Arts, attending several courses at EAV until 2016.
Mercedes shows her work in exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, such as the collective Baía de Guanabara: hidden waters and lives at MAC-Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, 2016, curated by Luiz Guilherme Vergara and with the participation of English artist Isaac Julien. The collective Displacement in 2017, February in London and July in Rio de Janeiro, curated by Gabriela Davies; the collective Rios do Rio, curated by Fernanda Pequeno at the Museu Histórico Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, in 2019 and the individual Force Field 1 at Galeria de Arte Gaby Índio da Costa, Rio de Janeiro, 2019.
In 2018, Mercedes was nominated for the PIPA Award, the most important platform for the dissemination of Brazilian culture
Since June 2020 she is a member of the art collective @boragirls, researching themes of Brazilian and Latin American women’s art in the globalized world.
Mercedes is represented by the galleries Gaby Índio da Costa Arte Contemporânea in Rio de Janeiro and Arte Formatto in São Paulo.
Education
– Bachelor’s degree in graphic design at PUC-RJ
Solo Exhibition
2019
– “Campo de Força” – Galeria Gaby Índio da Costa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Group Exhibitions
2021
– “Show for Nobody” – Curated by Daniela Labra. Blaze Image Gallery, London, UK.
2020
– “Bora Girls art collective” – Curated by Christianne Baerlein. Blaze Image Gallery, London, UK.
2019
– “Chacona and Fuga” – Curated by Ursula Tautz. Oriente Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
– “Arte Formatto” – Curated by Liliana Pedrosa and Gisela Rossi. São Paulo, Brazil.
– “Rivers of Rio” – Curated by Fernanda Pequeno. National Historical Museum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2018
– “Arte Formatto” – Curated by Liliana Pedrosa and Gisela Rossi. Casa Bossa, São Paulo, Brazil.
– “Aos fios entregguei o horizonte” – Curated by Marisa Flórido. Hiato Gallery, Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil.
– “Feminine Cabinet of Curiosity” – Curated by Rosa Paranhos. Palácio Rio Negro, Petrópolis, Brazil.
– “Artists without Gallery” – Zipper Galeria; São Paulo, Brazil.
– “Luz Balão”, curated by Marisa Flórido, Solar Meninos de Luz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
– “Artistas sem Galeria”, Orlando Lemos Galeria de Arte, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
– “Artistas sem Galeria”, Galeria Sancovsky e Zipper Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil.
2017
– “Para Todos”. Galeria Fortes D’Almeida & Gabriel – Carpintaria, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
– “Limiares” (as result of the courses “Imersões Poéticas “ and “Imersões Curatoriais”), Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
– “Displacement RIO”, curated by Gabriela Davies, Vila Aymore, Jacarandá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
– Displacement Exhibition”, curated by Gabriela Davies, Ugly Duck, Londres, UK.(http://www.displacementproject.co.uk/).
2016
– “Intervenções Bradesco/ARTRIO”, curated by Isabel Portella, Museu da República, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
– “Baía de Guanabara: águas e vidas escondidas”, curated by de Luiz Guilherme Vergara, Museu de Arte Contemporânea, MAC Niterói, Brazil.
2015
– Festival de Escultura, Centro Cultural da Justiça Federal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2014
– Public implementation of the project “Águas Escondidas”, pátio do Centro Cultural Paschoal Carlos Magno, Campo de São Bento, Niterói, Brazil.
– I Mostra RIO de Esculturas Monumentais, Praça Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Awards and Achievements
2018
– Nominated for the PIPA Award, the most important platform for the dissemination of Brazilian Contemporary Art.
https://www.premiopipa.com/?s=mercedes+lachmann
2017
– Selected for the national competition Artists without Gallery among 154 entries from 11 states plus the Federal District. The artists were chosen by a jury formed by Fernanda Resstom (Galeria Central), Nathalia Lavigne (independent curator), and Renata Castro e Silva (Galeria Carbon). The ten artists participated in two simultaneous group shows in São Paulo, at the galleries Sancovsky and Zipper, between 01/15 and 02/24/2018, and at Orlando Lemos Galeria de Arte, in Nova Lima (MG), between 10/03 and 04/20/18.
Mapa das Artes is the most complete printed guide of visual arts in São Paulo. The purpose of the Salão dos Artistas Sem Galeria is to evaluate, exhibit, document, and publicize the production of artists who do not have verbal or formal contracts (representation) with any art gallery in the city of São Paulo. The Salon traditionally opens the arts calendar in São Paulo and is a gateway for selected artists into the artistic world.
2016
– Selected for the international Displacement competition among 70 entries from various countries. The 10 finalists participated in a press conference in London in February 2017 and another in Rio de Janeiro in July of the same year.
2014
– Winner of the Niterói City Hall’s public notice contest with the project Águas Escondidas / Hidden Waters Public Park Work in Campo de São Bento, Niterói, Brazil.
Publication
– LACHMANN, M. M. V. Bênção de Deus VIII Transbordamentos. Rio de Janeiro: Studio Feira, 2017 (Notebook).
