While Brazilian artist Laura Lima’s tangled, knotted, and woven sculptures are frequently exhibited in gallery spaces, as they are in her present solo show at Goodman Gallery, London, it is only by happenstance. Beyond the formal exhibition space, Lima envisions and invites collectors to install these nest-like constructions in any of the places mentioned in the show’s title, “Communal Nests for Windows, Balconies, Verandas, Gardens, and Forests.”

The sculptures are influenced by the artist’s consideration of the myriad living things that could potentially interact with them—birds, squirrels, rodents, or, conversely, their predators—and Lima herself invites collectors to resist the codified sense of preciousness associated with fine art and install them in unconventional, accessible ways (or at least by an open window).

Installation view of “Laura Lima: Communal Nests for Windows, Balconies, Verandas, Gardens, and Forests” (2026). Photo: Stephen White and Co. Courtesy of Goodman Gallery.

Within the context of the show, the collection of sculptural works forms their own type of alien ecosystem.

“The works inhabit the space to be harvested by the public,” said Lima in a statement, “like a garden that invades it naturally. Each piece is a florescence that maintains a relationship with the whole, forming one large communal nest made of many communal nests. When removed and taken to the places—a garden, a balcony—they continue to offer shelter and use to other beings, like displaced flowers that continue to live in new environments.”

Laura Lima, Irapuru (2023). Photo: Laura Lima Studio. Courtesy of Laura Lima Studio and Goodman Gallery.

Made from everything from jute and porcelain to sisal thread and loofah, the works come with Lima’s playful recommendation that they be garnished with things that might entice small animals, like fruit and water; if one element breaks or goes missing, like a straw hat, it can simply be replaced with another. At the conceptual heart of the sculptures is Lima enticing the owner or viewer to reconsider and even cast off preconceived notions of value, and instead imagine new ways of truly living with art.

Concurrent to her show at Goodman Gallery, Lima is the subject of another solo show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, “The Drawing Drawing.” Here, the ontological and epistemological foundations of her work are traced, and, rather than come to a tidy conclusion, point to the ongoing, evolving nature of both her work and lived experience. Featuring a curated selection of works from across Lima’s career, the exhibition centers on a major, site-specific commission and titular work, The Drawing Drawing (2026).

Laura Lima, Ninho Comunal (Fonte) (2025). Photo: Laura Lima Studio. Courtesy of Laura Lima Studio and Goodman Gallery.

The Drawing Drawing appropriates the format of a life drawing class, but with a twist. A life model and several artists are placed upon mechanized platforms that slowly and variably orbit each other, evoking questions around representation, authorship, and mastery of craft.

Lima’s practice and oeuvre are anything but linear and straightforward, and the dual solo shows both taking place in London offer a rare opportunity for viewers to explore a dynamic breadth of her work, and the unconventional, boundary-eschewing approaches she takes to creating work that interweaves with life.

“Laura Lima: Communal Nests for WIndows, Balconies, Verandas, Gardens, and Forests” is on view at Goodman Gallery, London, through April 4, 2026.