The work of Renata Lucas (b. 1971, Ribeirão Preto, BR), centers on the impact of the built environment on sociocultural mores. In transforming structural frameworks, Lucas exposes and reshapes definitions of ownership, utility and social interaction in a manner that is both playful and radical. Often subtle and always unexpected, Lucas’ works closely examine urban, institutional and personal space, physically grafting one location onto another, cleverly merge indoor and outdoor environments, and modify streetscapes, all in the pursuit of bridging the seemingly unbridgeable.
Renata Lucas’ work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at international museums and institutions including Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo (2024), Performance Space New York, New York (2019); Secession, Vienna (2014); Peep- Hole, Milan (2011); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2010); CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2010); Gasworks, London (2007); and Redcat, Los Angeles (2007).
Lucas has created site specific works for the 8th Biennale internationale d’art contemporain de Melle (2018), dOCUMENTA (13) (2012), the 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011), the 53rd Venice Biennial (2009) and the 27th São Paulo Biennial (2006). She was the recipient of the Absolut Art Award (2013), the Dena Foundation Art Award (2009) and the Ernst Schering Foundation's Art Award (2009).