VERA LIST CENTER FOR ART AND POLITICS ANNOUNCES
2025–2027 JANE LOMBARD PRIZE FOR ART AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

AFRO-BRAZILIAN ARTIST ROSANA PAULINO IS HONORED WITH $25,000 PRIZE & EXHIBITION FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS IN ART AND POLITICS

(New York, NY — October 20, 2025) The Vera List Center for Art and Politics is honored to announce Brazilian artist, educator, and researcher Rosana Paulino as the recipient of the 2025–2027 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice. An integral part of the Vera List Center’s two-year research cycle Matter of Intelligence, Paulino is awarded the prize for the significance and impact of her 2016 artist book ¿História Natural?.

“We are thrilled to honor Rosana Paulino, whose practice has profoundly reshaped how we understand colonial legacies and their imprint on contemporary life,” said Carin Kuoni, Senior Director and Chief Curator of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics. “Her project ¿História Natural?, which exposes the entanglements of science, race, and power, will be a catalyst for dialogue with our students, faculty, and publics and a cornerstone of the Matter of Intelligence Focus Theme.”

The selection of Paulino was made unanimously by a jury chaired by Chus Martínez with members Tony Albert, Carin Kuoni, Sennay Ghebreab, and Gabi Ngcobo. In their jury citation, they comment:

Paulino redefines intelligence as dynamic, relational, and liberatory—challenging dominant epistemologies and opening space for more just and inclusive ways of knowing across human and non-human realms. In her hands, materials are not inert supports but active participants—textiles, paper, and thread become epistemic tools, carriers of memory, and agents in the work of unlearning and reimagining. Her practice challenges the false dichotomy between matter and thought, insisting that materials themselves can think, process, and transmit knowledge. 

Foregrounding mutuality, care, and the power of the collective, Paulino constructs networks of memory that are both deeply personal and politically charged. Through family archives, textiles, or visual narratives, she crafts modest, mobile forms that carry immense weight—tracing the histories of colonization while offering pathways toward resistance and healing. In doing so, she affirms that intelligence is not bound by data or logic, but is held in lived experience, intergenerational wisdom, and the enduring ties between body, land, and story.

Four finalists for the Prize are also honored and appointed as the 2025–2027 Jane Lombard Fellows. They are political artist collective ArTree Nepal for Tikā Chedna Angana; artist Stephanie Dinkins for Conversations with Bina48; digital media theorist and poet Jason Edward Lewis for Abundant Intelligences; and artist Jenna Sutela for nimiia cétiï.

About the Jane Lombard Prize
Endowed with a gift from VLC Board member Jane Lombard, the Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice is an international award that honors outstanding achievements in art and politics. It recognizes an experienced artist or group of artists for a project that engages with political themes and advances social justice in profound and visionary ways. The Jane Lombard Prize is awarded based on a project’s long-term impact, boldness, and artistic excellence, and is considered in relation to the Vera List Center’s two-year research theme. For the 2025–2027 prize cycle, this Focus Theme is Matter of Intelligence, through which the Prize will catalyze in-depth activities over two years that spawn new scholarship and strengthen teaching and learning opportunities on expanded notions of “intelligence,” and the role of the arts in advancing social justice. Through the Prize and in partnership with the recipient and fellows, the Vera List Center catalyzes new public conversations that engage audiences in New York City, nationally, and globally.

The Prize carries a cash award of US$25,000 and a limited edition artwork commissioned from Yoko Ono. As the Prize recipient, Paulino will be the subject of a solo exhibition at The New School, anchored by one of the artist’s most significant works—presented in October 2026 as part of the Vera List Center Forum 2026. The prize exhibition will bring new scholarship to Paulino’s influential practice, illuminating the artist’s long-standing impact in Latin America for the rest of the world. In addition to leading voices and practitioners in the field of art and politics, the VLC Forum will feature presentations by the Jane Lombard Fellows and will be accompanied by a newly published catalogue. 

The Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice is guided by a global Prize Council of 20 distinguished leaders in the arts. Each cycle, up to forty nominated projects undergo a rigorous, months-long process—from research and multiple rounds of review with The New School’s students and faculty, to community testimonials and final jury selection. At every stage, the prize embodies a curatorial ethos of care and rigor, grounded in a shared conviction in the transformative power of art to shape communities and public life. In dialogue with the Vera List Center’s multi-year focus themes and curatorial initiatives, the prize extends and amplifies these frameworks, situating artists’ practices within urgent conversations on art, knowledge, and social justice. 

Paulino was nominated for the prize by Brazilian curator Diane Lima, who is also curating Paulino’s presentation at the Brazilian Pavilion for the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. As part of the prize nomination process, Brazilian philosopher Denise Ferreira da Silva provided a community statement on behalf of the project’s impact and reach.

About ¿História Natural?
¿História Natural?, the work for which Rosana Paulino was nominated for the Prize, is a landmark in the career of the celebrated Brazilian artist. The artist book—featuring linocut, drypoint, and digital prints with hand additions in watercolor, charcoal, and sewing thread—challenges the scientific, religious, and political ideologies that were once weaponized to legitimize slavery and colonialism across Africa and South America. Its title questions the very foundations of natural science and classification that fueled colonial knowledge production, resource extraction, and subjugation of human and nonhuman species in Brazil. Paulino pairs images of Brazilian flora and fauna, once destined for European study, with colonial photographs of Black women and Indigenous peoples, exposing how taxonomy and racial hierarchy worked hand in hand to reduce non-white lives to specimens.

At once critique and proposition, ¿História Natural? confronts these colonial legacies while advancing a new mode of knowledge—one that rejects imperialist logics, continued erasure, and literal and physical marginalization of Black and Indigenous Brazilians and celebrates embodied Black intelligence.

“We are thrilled to welcome Rosana Paulino and the Jane Lombard Fellows to the Vera List Center and The New School. Their projects expand the meaning of intelligence—artificial, ancestral, alien, and nonhuman—while advancing urgent conversations on art and justice. We look forward to presenting Paulino’s work in a dedicated exhibition next fall and convening all four fellows at the Vera List Center Forum 2026,” said Eriola Pira, VLC Curator and Programs Director. “Their visionary practices will inspire our students, faculty, and broad public, sparking new forms of knowledge and exchange across communities.”

An essential component of the Jane Lombard Prize is the cohort of Fellows—finalists for the award—who will participate in the Vera List Center Forum 2026. During this short-term residency in New York, they will present their projects to new audiences, deepen discourse around their politically urgent work, and connect with one another and their communities.

The inaugural recipient was artist Theaster Gates for Dorchester Projects during the 2012–2014 cycle. The 2014–2016 prize was awarded to Abounaddara, an anonymous film based in Syria. Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves was awarded the 2016–2018 prize for Seeds of Change. The 2018–2020 prize was presented to the collective Chimurenga for their Pan-African Space Station. The 2020–2022 prize was awarded to Avni Sethi for Conflictorium, a museum based in Ahmedabad, India. Brisbane-based urban Aboriginal collective proppaNOW received the 2022–2024 prize for their landmark multisite exhibition OCCURRENT AFFAIR.

Jury
Tony Albert, Artist, Member of proppaNOW | Brisbane, Australia
Sennay Ghebreab, University of Amsterdam | Amsterdam, Netherlands
Carin Kuoni, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, ex officio | New York
Chus Martínez, Jury Chair, Curator and Art Historian | Basel, Switzerland
Gabi Ngcobo, Kunstinstituut Melly | Rotterdam, Netherlands

Nominators
Natalia Valencia Arango | London, UK
Raphael Chikukwa | Harare, Zimbabwe
Binna Choi | Utrecht, Netherlands
Katerina Chuchalina | Moscow, Russia
Tandazani Dhlakama | Cape Town, South Africa
Gridthiya Gaweewong | Bangkok, Thailand
Andil Gosine | Toronto, Canada
Mashinka Hakopian | Los Angeles, California
Hicham Khalidi | Maastricht, Netherlands
Qinyi Lim | Singapore
Diane Lima | São Paulo, Brazil
Suzanne Livingston | London, UK
Nontobeko Ntombela | Johannesburg, South Africa
Risa Puleo | Chicago, Illinois
Sara Morais dos Santos Bruss | Berlin, Germany
Noam Segal | New York, New York
Nishant Shah | Hong Kong
Andrea Thal | Cairo, Egypt
Fatos Ustek | London, UK
Vivian Ziherl | Rotterdam, Netherlands

About Rosana Paulino
Rosana Paulino is a Brazilian artist and curator whose work explores themes of gender, colonialism, and ancestry. She is especially interested in probing the lasting legacies of slavery in Brazil, often by interrogating the image of the Black woman in Brazilian culture. She studied printmaking and art at the Comunidades e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo. She later returned to complete a PhD, becoming the first Afro-Brazilian woman to earn a PhD in visual arts. She has also studied printmaking at Print Studio in London, UK, on an APARTES/CAPES scholarship. Her recent exhibitions are Diálogos do Dia e da Noite, Mendes Wood DM, New York (2025); Novas Raízes, Casa Museu Eva Klabin, Rio de Janeiro (2024); Amefricana, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires (2024); Nascituras, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2023). Her works are held in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo (MAM-SP), the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, and the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP); Malba Uni. New Mexico/USA; Afro Brazil Museum Emanoel Araújo and Centre Pompidou, and her significant accolades include a MUNCH award in 2024 and a Konex award in 2022.

About Vera List Center for Art and Politics
The Vera List Center for Art and Politics is a research center and a public forum for art, culture, and politics. It was established at The New School in 1992—a time of rousing debates about freedom of speech, identity politics, and society’s investment in the arts. A leader in the field, the center is a nonprofit that serves a critical mission: to foster a vibrant and diverse community of artists, scholars, and policymakers who take creative, intellectual, and political risks to bring about positive change.

About The New School
Founded in 1919, The New School was born out of principles of academic freedom, tolerance, and experimentation. Committed to social engagement, The New School today remains in the vanguard of innovation in higher education, with more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students challenging the status quo in design and the social sciences, liberal arts, management, the arts, and media. The New School welcomes thousands of adult learners annually for continuing education courses and a calendar of lectures, screenings, readings, and concerts. Through its online learning portals, research institutes, and international partnerships, The New School maintains a global presence.

For press inquiries, please contact Sarah Brown McLoed, Department PR, sarah@department-pr.com.