Graça Morais Contemporary Art Centre

The CACGM architectural project was focused on the renovation and expansion of a 17th century building, the Sá Vargas manor house, located in the historic centre of Bragança.

The CACGM mission is to raise awareness and promote knowledge of national and international contemporary art and especially the work of painter Graça Morais. 

The CACGM dynamics is based on a programme of temporary exhibitions of national and foreign artists and important public and private contemporary art collections, resulting from productions and co-productions with other leading national and international institutions.

On the 1st floor of the building, the CACGM has seven rooms dedicated entirely to the work of the painter Graça Morais, in a frequently renewed exhibition programme. 

The dynamics are complemented with a wide range of multidisciplinary initiatives, namely educational programmes, art workshops, concerts, conferences, performances and editorial activity.

In 2018, the Laboratory of Mountain Arts - Graça Morais (LAM-GM) was created, in partnership with the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, the Foundation for Science and Technology, City Council of Bragança and the School of Social Sciences and Humanities of NOVA University Lisbon. The LAM-GM aims to promote new opportunities for teaching and research activities based on the practice of arts in a mountain context, based on the inventory and creation of a documentation centre on the work of painter Graça Morais.

The CACGM also has its own contemporary art collection, built up from acquisitions, donations and works that are stored, in which many Portuguese and foreign artists are represented. 

However, the most significant part of the collection is by Graça Morais, and today, not only because of the number of works, series, themes and even periods brought together, it constitutes one of the most representative collections of her artistic practice.

With my painting, I want to build a different and unique space, where I can defend my identity, in these times of great mass production. 
(Graça Morais)

"Inquietações" is the title of Graça Morais' most recent work, made between 2020 and 2021. These dense and disturbing works are the result of a reflection on the human condition and on fear, which grips us in the face of cruelty, the unknown, injustice and the incomprehensible. An intense and questioning look of its characters stands out, as they continue to appear in the form of metamorphosis.

The drawings and paintings now on show are inspired by images broadcast on television and published on the press, intersecting with research around the biblical characters of Michelangelo’s iconic fresco paintings on the walls of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

Graça Morais
2021/07/30 to 2022/04/30