Sónia Almeida
Learn about the artist's universe through a text accompanied by a selection of works from the exhibition “All I want – Portuguese women artists from 1900 to 2020”
By Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Text by Lígia Afonso / Plano Nacional das Artes
Sónia Almeida examines the idea of painting as a system of language, a decorative act or a conceptual process. Her paintings feature intense, vibrant colours, applied in saturated smears and layers that are variously opaque and transparent, pushing at the limits of figuration and abstraction.
These elements can also be seen in her tapestries, some of which are created by printing pixelated images onto the material, so that the image mingles with the very texture of the piece.
44 Sound/Profile Ribbons (2017) by Sónia AlmeidaOriginal Source: Simone Subal Gallery, New York
44 Sound/Profile Ribbons, 2017
Oil on plywood
121,92 x 81,28 cm
Simone Subal Gallery, New York
Books as form, texts as a weaving or structuring of words, and writing as formal expression or phonetic oddity are often themes or subjects in her work.
Covering the full range of analogue and digital media, Almeida touches upon the medieval anthropomorphic alphabet, in which the letters are formed by contorted bodies; Raven’s Progressive Matrices, figures used to test analogue reasoning, the capacity for abstraction and perception; patterns generated from errors caused by websites, based on digital images; and techniques and iconographies associated with femininity, delicacy and decorum.
J. (2019) by Sónia AlmeidaOriginal Source: Private Collection, New York
J., 2019
Oil on plywood
81,28 x 60,96 cm
Private Collection, New York
Her paintings, made using materials such as plywood, door hinges and LED lights, mounted onto asymmetrical mechanisms or assemblies, appear to slip, unfurl, overlap and disclose, with plays of perception and illusion that allow them to be viewed in a tactile, performative way, from multiple points of view.
Portable Document/MarginsOriginal Source: Collection Sarika Singh & Vivek Bantwal, New York
Portable Document/Margins, 2018
Oil on aluminium and plywood, sliding mechanism
81,28 x 116,84 cm (open)
Collection Sarika Singh & Vivek Bantwal, New York
Portable Document/MarginsOriginal Source: Collection Sarika Singh & Vivek Bantwal, New York
Portable Document/MarginsOriginal Source: Collection Sarika Singh & Vivek Bantwal, New York
The disease of efficiency The disease of efficiency (2018) by Sónia AlmeidaOriginal Source: Simone Subal Gallery, New York
The disease of efficiency, 2018
Oil on aluminium and plywood, sliding mechanism
81,28 x 54,61 (closed)
81,28 x 105,41 cm (open)
Simone Subal Gallery, New York
The disease of efficiencyOriginal Source: Simone Subal Gallery, New York
The disease of efficiencyOriginal Source: Simone Subal Gallery, New York
Learn more about the artist:
Studio Visit: Sonia Almeida | ICA/Boston (in English)
Sonia Almeida: VoCA Talk (in English)
KWY, Sónia Almeida
Pockets and Lies, Sónia Almeida
Selection of works presented at the exhibition All I want: Portuguese women artists from 1900 to 2020, in its first moment at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, within the scope of the cultural program that takes place in parallel to the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2021.
Exhibition organized by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage (DGPC) and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in co-production with the Center of Contemporary Creation Olivier Debré, Tours, and with the collaboration of the Plano Nacional das Artes (Portugal).
Curators:
Helena de Freitas and Bruno Marchand
Text by Lígia Afonso / Plano Nacional das Artes
Selection of online resources Maria de Brito Matias
Learn more about Sónia Almeida's works presented in the context of this exhibition:
All I want: Vernacular Life
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