(translation)
She was born in Luanda, in 1966. Currently living and working in Lisbon, the city where she studied Visual Arts as well as engraving, ceramics, illustration or calligraphy.
Patrícia Magalhães is the artist behind the last exhibition held at the Centro Cívico Edmundo Pedro gallery, hosted last year from October 24th to November 20th.
While we wait for the gallery space to reopen to the public (we're still in lockdowns due to the pandemic outbreak), we leave you with a short interview with the artist, guided by the curator of this cultural space, Tânia Caeiro.
How did your relationship with painting and drawing begin?
I've been drawing since I've known myself. I have very old memories – some of me and others that were told to me as a family – I was always making dolls, doodling, making small sculptures with wires, playing with translucent colored little pieces of glass… I still remember reactions to my drawings, from primary to secondary and undoubtedly drawing was what I always wanted to do... unfortunately life, sometimes, runs over us so it has been only very recently that I managed to return to devoting myself, entirely, to drawing.
What/who are your influences?
This is quite hard to answer. Generically speaking, I would say that my influences are “everything and everyone”. I consider myself a receptacle of the multiple impulses I permanently come across. Whether as a spectator or as an intervener, sharing experiences with other artists, deepening knowledge, experimenting with techniques, I think I'm a sum of all of this, to which other stimuli are added that also move me, like cinema, music, reading... even the simple contemplation of nature or everyday life.
I'm not trying to avoid the question so, if I had to give you a very specific answer, at the present moment, if I had to choose a couple of references in visual arts, then I would name four giants: Henri Matisse and Constantin Brancusi on the one hand, Álvaro Lapa and Joaquim Bravo on the other .