Laura Belém Lives and works in Belo Horizonte (Brazil), b. 1974

Born in Belo Horizonte, in 1974, where she lives and works

Through her art work, Laura Belém creates encounters that activate the spectator’s imagination and promote possibility of revaluation for relationship with her surroundings and herself.

The context and the specificities of the location are important starting points for the artist, that creates artworks in installation, sculpture, drawing, photography, sound art and video. The work she develops in her atelier often relate to the environment and concepts of memory, nature, culture, displacement and temporality.    

Laura has a Bachelor of Arts from the School of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte (1993-1996), and a Master's degree from the Central Saint Martins College of Art, London, United Kingdom (CAPES Scholarship, APARTES Program, 1999-2000 ). She received the Pampulha Scholarship, from the Pampulha Art Museum (Belo Horizonte, 2003), as well as the “CIFO Grants and Commissions Program” from the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (Miami, 2011) and the CNI SESI Marcantônio Vilaça Award for Visual Arts (Brasília , 2011).

In 2018, she won the SP Arte Prize and held an Artistic Residency at the Delfina Foundation, in London. In 2019, she created a permanent public work for the Wildbad Rothenburg park in Bavaria, Germany, at the invitation of the Art Residency Wildbad program. In 2022, her sculpture "Enamorados" (2004) was installed at the Inhotim Institute and incorporated into the museum's collection. Since the late 2000s, she has participated in exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, having held solo exhibitions in art galleries and institutions such as: Galeria Athena (Rio de Janeiro, 2016 and 2023); Casa de Cultura do Parque (São Paulo, 2022); Celma Albuquerque Galeria de Arte (Belo Horizonte, 2021 and 2018); Morumbi Chapel (São Paulo, 2015); Galeria Luisa Strina (São Paulo, 2008 and 2011), MAMAM no Pátio - Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães (Recife, 2007); and Pampulha Art Museum (Belo Horizonte, 2002 and 2004), among other locations. Among her exhibitions in museums and international institutions are MAZ-Museo de Arte de Zapopan (Zapopan, Mexico, 2023); Culturgest (Lisbon, Portugal, 2020); Ellen de Bruijne Projects (Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2016); CAM Raleigh Contemporary Art Museum (Raleigh, USA, 2014); Zacheta National Gallery of Art (Warsaw, Poland, 2013); Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (Miami, USA, 2013); Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Gallery (Mito-Shi, Japan, 2011); Liverpool Biennial (Liverpool, United Kingdom, 2010); and 51st Venice Biennale (Venice, Italy, 2005).

The artist has works in important public collections, such as Instituto Inhotim (Brumadinho, Minas Gerais); Figueiredo Ferraz Institute (Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo); Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection (Rio de Janeiro); Museum of the City of São Paulo (São Paulo); Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation - CIFO (Miami, United States); Wildbad Rothenburg (Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany); and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art SFMoMA (San Francisco, United States), among others.