Wonders of Rio de Janeiro

A stylised presentation in the exterior – panorama of the City of Rio de Janeiro. Recognisable motifs such as statue of Christ the Redeemer, a gondola that leads to Sugarloaf Mountain, bluishness of the ocean with fantastic elements of architecture, flora and fauna conjure up the prospect of metropolis, while the thickness of colouring shows the spirit of the people. In Ermelinda de Almeida’s works, authentic artistic form can be recognized in phantasmagorical motifs, fancifully fitted in holiday and everyday genre scenes. The newly created forms, portrayed as unusual, exotic birds, hybrid creatures and wealth of zoomorphic vegetation produce typical, inseparable part of the scenery, and at the same time transition to a quite new, parallel world of the painting. There, amidst illogical relations between reality and order of unreal phenomena, Ermelinda de Almeida’s imaginary world emerges, while artistic fancy is on the verge of lasting experiences and memories. That world originates from the painter’s inner, psychological reality via the intuitive, often the unconscious (N. Ljubomirović).