Lucia Laguna (Campo dos Goytacazes, 1941) began her artistic trajectory by enrolling at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro’s prominent art school, in 1995. At a young age, she moved from her inland hometown to the capital to teach Portuguese at public schools. A retired teacher at 54, Laguna fully embraced painting, and her home soon doubled as her studio in the suburban Rio neighborhood of São Francisco Xavier, a longstanding source of her visual references and pictorial language. In 1998, Laguna presented her first solo exhibition at Cândido Mendes Cultural Centre, Rio de Janeiro. In 2012, she participated in the 30th Bienal de São Paulo, marking a decisive turning point in her career, with the architecturally oriented abstractions of her early paintings becoming increasingly populated with collage-like image citations. Laguna has since had major solo exhibitions, including “Vizinhança”, MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2018), and “Enquanto bebo a água, a água me bebe”, MAR - Museu de Arte do Rio (2016). Laguna is represented by Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro) since 2010 and, in 2022, presented her first solo show at Sadie Coles HQ (London). Her work is in the public collections of MASP, MAM-SP, MAM-RJ, MAR, and Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, among others.