MARIANA GOMES
File
Artists' studios can provide excellent insights into artists’ working methods. The studio of artist Mariana Gomes (Faro, 1983) is open and airy, but thanks to the lighting and the placement of tables and shelving units, other spaces emerge there, areas where her different activities are carried out. A visual interplay is at work, designed by chance I imagine, where some objects immediately stand out. A series of small sculptures, for instance, which includes busts of Antonin Artaud, Philip Guston, Tintoretto, Leopardi, Borges, Eliot and Henri Michaux, strike one as being homages to her influences, but also as reflecting a central aspect of her work, namely a need to touch the material, to feel it.
Accordingly, Mariana Gomes champions painting as an untiring, passionate, quest featuring play, transgression, happenings, festive and carnivalesque elements, masks, passion and humor, and endeavoring to walk on the cutting edge, to forge new paths. Painting as action, a feast on the canvas. And drawing as a nonstop flow, a succession of images evocative of thin skins, fine layers, but also of murals.
Often, in her paintings, she begins with allusions, but ultimately consigns more importance to gesture, to the language of abstraction, to the cracks and furrows. Viewing her oeuvre as a whole, one notices a kind of determination to always begin anew (Icarus, time), as when she painted over already-exhibited canvases, not out of a desire to cover them, but rather to provoke an encounter between two moments, two actions, two quests, with the utter conviction that they were one and the same thing —the act of painting— which could be enacted on top of another presence, even on a blank canvas. Not to mention her playing with shadows, or projecting images onto masks and objects, determined to know what lies behind or within the painting.
Miguel Fernández-Cid / Pilar Souto Soto, curators of the exhibition
GENERAL INFORMATION / DOCUMENTATION / ACTIVITIES
School programme
In collaboration with: Fundación “la Caixa”
Until June 25
Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10:00 to 11:30 and 11:30 to 13:00
By appointment: tel. 986 113900 Ext. 200 / 986 113900 Ext. 308 / comunicacion@marcovigo.com
Programme for associations, collectives and special needs groups.
In collaboration with: Fundación “la Caixa”
From June 16
Opening hours: depending on case-by-case requirements and availability
By appointment: tel. 986 113900 Ext. 200 / 986 113900 Ext. 308 / comunicacion@marcovigo.com
Summer workshops for children and families
In collaboration with: Fundación “la Caixa”
From July 7
By appointment: tel. 986 113900 Ext. 200 / 986 113900 Ext. 308 / recepcion@marcovigo.com
Information and guided tours
Museum staff in the exhibition galleries are available to answer visitors’ queries and provide information. In addition to the usual guided tours: 'À la carte' tours for groups, by appointment every day at 18:00.
Artists
MARIANA GOMES
Mariana Gomes (Faro, Portugal, 1983), lives and works in Lisbon. She has a degree in Visual Arts/Painting at the Fine Arts Faculty of Lisbon University. Her extensive exhibition history since 2008 includes numerous solo shows and participation in various group exhibitions in Portugal and abroad.
Solo exhibitions: Time Smoking a Picture (Pedro Oliveira Gallery, Oporto, Portugal, 2025); Neo-Pós-Neo (Cristina Guerra Gallery, Lisbon, 2023); Infusão de rabisco, Ciclo Desenho como Pensamento (Centro Artes de Águeda, Portugal, 2021); Solilóquio (Cristina Guerra Gallery, Lisbon, 2020); Bollocks 3 - a Continuação (Espaço Fontes in collaboration with Appleton, Fundão, Portugal, 2020); Canhota, curated by Bruno Marchand (Fundação Carmona e Costa Foundation, Lisbon, 2019); Romanian Dances (Baginsky Gallery, Lisbon, 2017); Não Aplicável (Fernando Santos Gallery, Oporto, Portugal, 2016); Bollocks, curated by Bruno Marchand (Appleton Square, Lisbon, 2016); Breviário (Fernando Santos Gallery, Oporto, Portugal, 2014); Os homens que se Riem (O Armário, Lisbon, 2014); Stop Making Sense!, curated by João Pinharanda (Fundação EDP, Lisbon, 2013); What a Show, everyone was terrific (Módulo Gallery – Centro Difusor de Arte, Lisbon, 2012); Erro (Módulo Gallery – Centro Difusor de Arte, Lisbon, 2010); X Tentativas (Módulo Gallery – Centro Difusor de Arte, Lisbon, 2009); Mariana Gomes (Galería Gallery – Centro Difusor de Arte, Lisbon, 2008).
Her recent group exhibitions include, among others: Pedra e Vento (Buraco, Lisbon, 2025); Somos Todos Capitães – 50 Anos Em Liberdade (Museu Nogueira da Silva, Braga, Portugal, 2025); Sempre e nunca mais (MACE Elvas, Portugal, 2024); Elevador da Glória (Centro de Arte Oliva, São João da Madeira, Portugal, 2024); Pinturas habitadas (Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon, 2024); White Noise (Cristina Guerra Gallery, Lisbon, 2024); Pintura. Provocação (Galeria do Parque, Vila Nova da Barquinha, Portugal, 2024); FPM #5 - Paisagem: vista e panorama (Fundação PLM, Lisbon, 2024); First Step (Bigger Splash, Lisbon, 2024); Fresh Breeze (Kunstraum Botschaft, Berlin, Germany, 2023); Pintura sem fim (Brotéria, Lisbon, 2023); Dark Safari (Museu do Côa, Vila Nova de Foz Côa, Portugal, 2023); Profanações (Fidelidade Chiado, Lisbon, 2023); Perspetiva 24, Bienal de Vilanova da Cerveira, Portugal, 2023); Transition Zones (Fundação PLMJ, Lisbon, 2023); A Revolução na Noite (Centro de Arte Oliva, São João da Madeira, Portugal, 2023).
She has been awarded prizes such as, the 10th Edition of Amadeu Souza Cardoso (Amarante, Portugal, 2015) and the FLAD Drawing Award (Lisbon, 2025), as well as honorable mentions. Her works form part of public and private collections, such as Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Fundação Carmona e Costa, MAAT Lisbon, CACE Coleção de Arte Contemporánea do Estado, Coleção António Cachola Elvas, Fundación EDP, MACAM Museu Arte Contemporânea Armando Martins, to mention a few.
