She graduated in Visual Communication from PUC-Rio in 1986, attended the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage (EAV), and took part in study groups on art and philosophy as well as training programs with artists and curators. In 2018, she was nominated for the Pipa Prize, one of the most important visual arts awards in Brazil. In 2020, she joined the artist collective @BoraGirls, which supports women in vulnerable situations through art-driven communication initiatives. 

Her practice primarily unfolds in the fields of sculpture, installation, and video, with a focus on natural materials. Her work engages with environmental issues, and some of her pieces are closely related to Environmental Art and Land Art. Water has been a central element in her poetics, evoking themes such as the ephemerality of life, the transformation of matter, and the scarcity of natural resources.

 

In recent years, Mercedes has incorporated plants, medicinal and aromatic herbs into her work, combining different intensities, qualities, and potencies to create a sensitive kind of alchemy. Alongside plants, new materials such as wood, leaves, seeds, and metals have been integrated into her production, reflecting a vision of integration, collaboration, and the proliferation of forms and synesthetic experiences, as observed in the expression of nature.