Art on a Postcard International Women’s Day Auction - Curated by Alexandra Steinaker

About 
Paula Turmina she/they, Paula Turmina (b. 1991, Brazil) is an artist who lives and works in London. Her practice encompasses painting, printmaking, analogue films, and writing. She is interested in the human relationship to the land, speculating on the future of the Earth and the interconnection with more-than-human subjects. Her work stages the transition between the human body, animal, plants, and the landscape, combining a sci-fi perspective to personal desires. 
 
Education 
BA (Hons) in Painting at Wimbledon College of Fine Arts (2013-2016) and MA Painting course at the Slade School of Fine Art (2018-2021) 
 
Selected Exhibitions/Awards 
In 2019, Turmina was awarded a residency programme with Winsor & Newton in collaboration with The FineArt Collective, and was the recipient of the Zsuzsi Roboz Scholarship with the Chelsea Arts Club Trust.  
 
Solo shows include  
2023 
‘Thriving through (chaos)’ at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London 
‘Membrane’ at Sens Gallery, Hong Kong 
2022 
‘There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns’ at Mama Projects, Paris 
 
Her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions such as  
2023 
‘Tomorrow is tomorrow is tomorrow’ at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London 
2022 
‘In transit, our memory fragments’ at Chelsea Space, London  
‘The Red Room’ at Berntson Bhattacharjee Gallery, London 
‘Wish Lush’ at Kravitz Contemporary, London 
‘Decomposition and Fetish’ at Vivian Caccuri Atelier, Rio de Janeiro 
 
Statement 
A recurring theme in Paula's work are the ‘sun worshippers’, a group of survivors in the devastated Earth of a dystopian future who find solace in the adoration of the celestial body that provides light and heat but in contradiction can also burn and blind the eye. Turmina’s made-up mythology gives rise to an array of surrealistic images that are variously disturbing and humorous.  
In the two postcards, we can see a hand reaching outwards to the sun. One as a close-up and the other in a dried landscape at a time that looks like late afternoon. The arm in the landscape comes detached from the body, morphed and behaving as a snake; raising the question of how such transformation happened and making space for a hybrid creature to exist. Whilst in the close-up postcard, the hand seems to be delicately touching the sun which appear as a pearl, a metaphor of something precious in our hands. 
 
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