Visual Artist
Sílvia
Patrício
Thrilled to have you here.
I invite you to explore my life’s work.
Paintings
The universe of my paintings is populated by real and/or imaginary beings, each wearing different characters that create a moment, a situation. These lead and invite the observer into action. I explore various themes, from folk tales to current issues, using a questioning tone. Human and botanical elements are always present in a bond between the terrestrial and the celestial.
Sculpture
My sculptures are somehow an extension of my paintings.
They allow me a different understanding of these, their existence becoming more real. While the paintings invite the observer in, with the sculptures, it is them who are invited into our world. I use different materials, wood, metals, fabric, paper etc. and I always enjoy new challenges.
Installation
To more intensely inhabit these places which are created. Other senses are revealed. Sometimes they exist and envelop the space with an ephemeral veil, other times they eventually become part of the space. I explore themes linked to a certain place or situation appearing as a bridge between the visible and the invisible. I use a variety of materials, from photography, video, objects and buildings.
Portraits
From early on, my work has crossed paths with portraiture, and I am not certain whether the "settings/actions" that I created brought about the characters, often real ones, or if it is the very people that surround me and appear in my life that open up a whole new universe for me to record.
Each person is for me like a curious box that, once opened, reveals itself as unique and bursting with elements and feelings.
The arts serve humanity
and humanity serves the arts.
To Sow dazzlement
in the clouds and await
the monsoon
© 2022 Silvia Patrício. All Right Reserved.
Biography
I was born in 1974
in Paris, France.
I moved to Portugal early, but the first childhood memories had already been planted. The transition to another culture was impacting, the holiday space becomes a constant and is transformative. It is here that the start of the great absorption of my surroundings begins. Local practices and customs are intense. These will come to be part of my universe, my artistic language.
Since 2007, I dedicate myself entirely to the visual arts.
Over the years I have developed several projects, which have become exhibitions: painting, sculptures or installations. In chronological order I highlight some of these below.
In 1997 I held my first exhibition: "O OUTRO LADO" (The Other Side), in Leiria. A pictorial representation of the forest place, the world of trees, a theme to which I am currently returning. The Botany realm reveals to be a fascinating constant. It creates a parallel with the development of societies, both in the sense of nature’s influence on us, and of ours on nature. It reveals itself in multiple relations, the micro and the macro, an internal cosmos and an external cosmos, there is an unrest, a search for a new place. The variables are many, and so are the questions.
"SUSURRANDO UNA HISTORIA" (Whispering a Story) in 2007 at the Unamuno Gallery in Salamanca, Spain.
In 2009 a painting exhibition: "ESSA PAIXÃO PROIBIDA" (That Forbidden Passion), based on the literary novel O crime do Padre Amaro by Eça de Queiroz, which was exhibited at Ensaios Gallery, in Leiria, and in 2012 at Resende’s Cultural Centre. This exhibition was later (2013) printed in large format canvas and exhibited in Leiria’s historical centre, as part of the Queirosian itinerary.
In 2011, inspired by the Portuguese universe, I created a set of paintings that resulted from reading Portuguese tales and legends. This was also exhibited at Ensaios Gallery, Leiria.
The exhibition "ENTREMUNDOS" (Between Worlds) was part of the Gothic Music Festival "Entremuralhas 2009" and was inspired by this universe. From the poetry to the sounds.
The following year, 2012, I created a set of works entitled "DO PRINCÍPIO AO FIM" (From Start to Finish), which had the human condition as its central theme. Exhibited at BAG in Leiria and at CCC in Coimbra, the project was again presented in Paris in 2013, at Casa de Portugal, with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Camões Institute.
Seeking to explore other languages and registers of thought, and with the collaboration of Sofia Mota, through photography, video and installation I created "ONÍRIA" also in 2013: a dive/journey into the inner female, to which I would like to return one day.
From my stay in Porto in 2014, the exhibition "DA CURA À FELICIDADE" (From Cure to Happiness) was born, in partnership with São João Hospital, an exhibition that brought together testimonies and experiences with disease, from healing to overcoming processes, resulting in a set of paintings.
In 2016, after reading one of the oldest books in the world, the Bible, the exhibition “HUMANÁRIO” (Humanarius) is born. I selected a part, the Old Testament, an account, a description of the world’s creation. How, in 7 days, from darkness comes light, from nothingness everything, until the Big Bang of our Science, culminating in an exhibition of painting/installation, in Leiria at BAG (2016) and at CCC (2017) in Lisbon.
After a short stay in Macau, I participated in the Camilo Pessanha centenary exhibition, as well as in 2018 and 2022 at the Macau Biennale (artfem).
In the context of sacred art, in 2017 I was invited to create the official images of the Little Shepherds of Fatima, at the time of their canonisation and the Pope's visit to Portugal. These were exhibited on the facade of the Shrine and later integrated in the Collection of Fatima Museum.
In 2018 I return to Botany. After reading Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants, I created "METAMORPHOSIS", a set of works, paintings and installation, exhibited that same year at Arquivo Gallery and BAG in 2020, Leiria.
In the year 2021/22, I participated in the exhibition "Rostos" (Faces) in the Museum of Fatima with five works - painting and sculpture.
Apart from these exhibitions, over the years I have carried out commissions in the area of painting, sculpture, and pieces of architectural integration. My works are present in public and private collections.
