Leka Mendes (1980) is an artist and photographer, with a degree in Architecture from Centro Universitário Belas Artes, São Paulo. In her current works, such as the series Antropocênicas, she uses traces and remnants of human presence — like debris from civil construction and stones, mostly collected during her travels — as well as discarded plastic and electronic materials. She is interested in narratives concerning the human passage on Earth, especially regarding its ephemerality and fragility, and emphasizes human intervention in all spaces.

Her works are part of public collections such as Centro Cultural São Paulo, Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro, and The Fine Art Laboratory, Tokyo, in addition to important private collections. In 2022, she presented Observatório de imagens inalcançáveis at Temporada de Projetos do Paço das Artes, São Paulo. In 2023, she held the solo exhibition Ao entrar nas profundezas, pense nas alturas at Marli Matsumoto Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo, and participated in a residency and exhibition at Appleton, Lisbon. In 2024, she took part in a residency at Cité internationale des arts, Paris, and participated in the Trienal de Tijuana, Mexico.

Atalho (2025) was created using repurposed tarpaulins, bleach, and pigments, and engages with Mendes’s ongoing research into the collection and re-signification of materials. The scattered marks, stains, and cutouts across the fabric evoke celestial bodies and trajectories through space, forming a poetic cartography that suggests a cosmic map, a shortcut, a wormhole connecting matter, time, and imagination.