Enquiries / Commissions

studio@julimanara.com 

 

​Biography

Juli Manara is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist working in photography, moving images, and installation. Her work explores the relationship between humans and the natural world, blending landscapes, botanical studies, portraiture, and symbolic figures into immersive, often fantastical compositions.​ Manara’s work has been collected and exhibited internationally at venues including the Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art and Tate Modern. In 2023, her first short animation, made from recycled paper and photographic fragments, was selected as a finalist for the United Nations Sustainable Film Awards and was projected at Piccadilly Circus. In 2025, she was invited to lead the Royal Academy of Arts' first photography short course and created a series of outdoor billboard works across London for them. Her collaboration with The Macallan, a renowned whisky brand recognised for its sustainable approach, resulted in a large-scale forest triptych for the brand’s boutique at Heathrow International Airport.

 

Juli holds an MA from Goldsmiths University and has taught extensively at  Speos International Photography School.

The artist currently lives and works between London, UK and São Paulo, Brazil.

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Work Process

"The Constructed Reality"

Juli Manara's work redefines the boundaries of the photographic medium. Moving beyond the tradition of the "captured moment," Manara utilizes a rigorous process of digital and physical photomontage to build immersive, impossible landscapes. Drawing inspiration from both classical painting and scientific research, her work operates as a synthesis of the natural world and human intervention—blending botanical precision, landscapes, portraiture, and symbolic figures into "fictitious constructions" that challenge our perception of space and time. Through the small figures, the artist explores the scale of our existence, serving as a poignant reflection of nature’s magnitude and the humble space we occupy within the world.

Manara’s methodology is rooted in the architecture of the image. By meticulously stitching together disparate photographic fragments, all captured by herself, she creates compositions that the human eye could never naturally perceive. These works reveal hidden micro-details that usually go unseen. By playing with scale and rich tones, the artist gives even the smallest elements vital significance, highlighting their essential role within the ecosystem.

These are not documents of existing places, but constructed environments that exist only within the frame and her imagination. Through this "Impossible Construction," Manara collapses geographic and temporal distances, fusing the vibrance of Brazil's tropical environment with the density of the Northern Hemisphere into a singular, transnational visual language.

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Public Displays 

The Macallan Forest - Commissioned by The Macallan - Permanent Display at Heathrow Airport 

The Billboards - Commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts - 2025 Across London
 

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Lecturers & Talks

The Royal Academy of Arts - Guest Lecture - London, UK

Belmond Design and Interiors Team + ArtiQ Agency - London, UK

De La Warr Pavilion Curators and Patrons - Embassy of Brazil in London
Speos International Photography School - Paris & London
PUC University - São Paulo, Brazil

Unicamp University - São Paulo, Brazil
 

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Exhibitions
2025 - Botanic Series Commission - The Macallan Boutique - London International Heathrow Airport 
2025 - The Billboards - Commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts, Camden Market - London

2025 - Manacá - Solo Exhibition - Embassy of Brazil in London 

2025 - The National Gallery 200th Anniversary - Group Show  - Vaults of the National Gallery - London

2024 - Museum of Contemporary Art - Niterói - "Oh, I Love Brazilian Women!" - Rio de Janeiro

2023 - CCSP - Centre for Contemporary Art - "Oh, I Love Brazilian Women!" - São Paulo

2021 -  Apexart - "Oh, I Love Brazilian Women!" - New York

2020 - Tate Modern - Screen display for the opening of Dora Maar's Exhibition - London

2014 - Saatchi Gallery + Fritz Hansen Design at The Hyatt Hotel - London
2013 - National Library of France - Paris
2012 - NordArt Contemporary Art Fair - Hamburg

2012 - MIS - Museu de Imagem e Som - Group Exhibition - São Paulo
2012 - Somerset House - London Fashion Week - London

2010 - Palais de Chaiilot - Prix de la Jeune Creation - Paris, France

 

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Short Films Display​

2023 - PaperHeads - The Package Animation - Curzon Mayfair Cinema - London

2023 - PaperHeads - The Package Animation  - Piccadilly Circus Spotlights Screen - London

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Honours & Awards
2023 Big Syn International Film Festival Awards (United Nations) - London UK
2020 Screen display selection - Tate Modern - London UK 

2013 International Fine Art Photography Awards 

2012 LICC London International Creative Competition 

2011 Made Design Artist Awards 

2010 LPA London Photographic Association 

2010 Sony World Photography Awards 

2010 Prix de la Jeune Création Métiers d’Art  -  Winner - Photography - Paris, France 

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Selected Collections
The Macallan

Hiscox Art Collection
European Union Office, Brussels, Belgium

UBS Bank
Hyatt Group
National Library of France - Paris, France

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Bibliography 

Cover Image - Luso-Ecologies: Ecocritical Perspectives on Lusophone Arts and Literatures special issue for Portuguese Studies, edited by Dorothée Boulanger and Andrzej Stuart-Thompson vol. 41, n.1, 2025 - Oxford University

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Selected Publications
The Art Newspaper

Vogue 

The Culture Edit by Vogue

Financial Times 

How to Spend it

Smithsonian

The Glass Magazine

Widewalls

ArtRabbit

London Fashion Week

Saatchi Magazine
Art for Your World by WWF

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