Janaina Mello Landini (São Gotardo, MG, Brazil, 1974) lives and works in São Paulo. Trained as an architect at UFMG, where she later studied Fine Arts, she brings together knowledge from architecture, physics and mathematics in her research. Her work, widely exhibited internationally, ranges from intimate-scale pieces to large-scale immersive installations.
In 2010, Landini coined the neologism "ciclotrama" to name the central line of research she has pursued ever since. In this investigation, she brings structural mathematics and philosophy into dialogue to consider how a unit relates to the whole in network systems. Working with thread, her Ciclotramas take the form of cyclical weavings guided by algorithms that incorporate the physical variations of matter in dialogue with fractal geometry. This system is shaped by forces such as weight, torsion, tension and time, so that minor variations and irregularities become constitutive of the work, which in turn represents a fragment of a continuous, infinite process.
Another important strand of the artist's work is the Labirinto series, which brings together works that articulate multiple perspectives through a shift from classical geometry to a decentralized viewpoint. Satin, a recurring material in the series, reflects light according to the viewer's position, creating a visual experience of continuous immersion in the constructed space.
In Landini's work, ropes that unravel into minute filaments, threads that occupy entire walls, and weavings that expand from plane to volume operate as devices through which she investigates the relationship between matter, gesture and time. Collaborative performances and immersive installations also punctuate her trajectory, expanding the participatory dimension of her practice.
Janaina has held six solo exhibitions at Zipper Galeria, including Acorda (2026, curated by Marcello Dantas, in which she incorporates, for the first time, elements such as branches, stones, salt, charcoal, mosses, fungi and potassium into her artistic vocabulary), Bosque Neural (2024), Espaço Preso (2022), Aqui, agora (2019), Labirinto Sintrópico (2016), and Ciclotrama 20 (onda) (2015). She has also held solo exhibitions internationally, including Amulet, at the Ilulissat Kunstmuseum (Greenland, 2024); Ciclotrama, at the Akerk (Groningen, Netherlands, 2024); Immanence, at Galerie Virginie Louvet (Paris, 2022); and Agglomerati, at Galeria Macca (Cagliari, Italy, 2017).
In 2026, she is included in the retrospective Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses at the Brooklyn Museum (New York), a traveling exhibition that has also been presented at MAD Paris (2023), QAGOMA Brisbane (2024), ArtScience Singapore and Kunsthal Rotterdam (2025). That same year, the musician Peter Gabriel selected her work Ciclotrama 156 (Palindrome) to illustrate "Been Undone," the first release of the o\i project, placing her alongside artists such as Tomás Saraceno and Francis Alÿs. She took part in the 13th Mercosul Biennial (Porto Alegre, 2022), the Rijswijk Textile Biennial (Netherlands, 2017), and exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2016), the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire (France, 2019) and the Fondation Carmignac (Île de Porquerolles, 2018).
Her works are held in collections including Fondation Thalie (France), Fondation Carmignac (France), the BIC Collection (France), MAR (Rio de Janeiro), Facebook (Menlo Park), MAD Paris (French National Collection), FAMA Museu (Itu), and The Graeme and Mabie Briggs Collection of Latin American Art (Australia).