“Two Four Twelve”

On the one hand, Jac Leirner’s visuality is based on her careful observation of art history. It is the works of other artists that teach her compositional possibilities and challenges, forming a vast repertoire of pictorial and spatial operations. On the other hand, her tactile sense often seeks out materials that do not belong to the scope of the materials consecrated by art history. They are pieces of the everyday world that she gathers (keeps, exchanges, asks for, buys) and forms an arsenal of things with their colors, shapes, brands and found materials. Many of Jac Leirner’s works, therefore, emerge from the encounter between her visual thinking and her tactile desire.

She graduated in Fine Arts in 1984 from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado – FAAP, where she taught between 1987 and 1989. In 1991, she worked as an artist in residence at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, United States. In the same year, in England, she was a visiting professor at the University of Oxford and an artist in residence at the Museum of Modern Art in the same city. In 2012, she was an artist in residence at the Yale School of Art, where she also taught.

He participated in the São Paulo Biennials of 1983 and 1989. He participated in the Venice Biennial in 1990 and represented Brazil, also in Venice, in the 1997 edition. He was part of the 9th Documenta in Kassel , in 1992. His work is present in collections such as the Tate Modern Gallery, in London, and MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim, in the United States, among others. In 2011, he held a solo retrospective exhibition at Estação Pinacoteca in the State of São Paulo and for this exhibition, he won the APCA (São Paulo Association of Art Critics) award for best exhibition of the year.