Preisträgerin/ Winner Young Art Awards 2014
Ana Pais Oliveira (Vila Nova de Gaia, 1982) lives and works in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal. She graduated in Painting at the School of Fine Arts, University of Porto (2005) and she has a PhD on Art & Design – Painting with the project Colour between pictorial and architectural space: relational processes in contemporary artistic practices (2015, School of Fine Arts, University of Porto). She obtained the diploma of Merit for the best classification in the PhD on Art & Design, academic year 2015/2016. She is a resident artist at FACE – Fórum de Arte e Cultura de Espinho, where she has her studio and collaborates in various initiatives since April 2016. She is a collaborator member in the Art and Design Nucleus at the Research Institute in Art, Design and Society (i2ADS), School of Fine Arts, University of Porto and a member of the investigation group Bases Conceptuais da Investigação em Pintura (2014-2019). She had an investigation scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) between 2011 and 2015. She is also a member of the AIC Study Group on Environmental Colour Design and of APcor – Associação Portuguesa da Cor. She was part of the Portuguese selection for the Young European Biennial 2013/2015, was selected to the XV Open Call of Galeria Luis Adelantado in Valencia (2013) and won Kunstpreis Young Art Award <33 [colour] from the Gallery Art Forum Ute Barth in Zürich, Switzerland, where she had her solo show in the summer of 2014. She was also long listed to the Solo Award 2016 / London Art Fair 2017, promoted by Wilson Williams Contemporary Art Gallery, London. She won the acquisition prize Amigos da Biblioteca-Museu de Amarante in the 9th Edition of the Prize Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (2013), the First Prize Aveiro Jovem Criador (2009), the First Prize Engenho e Arte (2009), the First Prize Arte XXI 10 (2009) and the First Prize Eixo Atlântico in the VIII Biennial Eixo Atlântico do Noroeste Peninsular (2008). She regularly participates in conferences and seminars about her work and investigation, having presented it recently in Genoa, Newcastle, Valencia, Monção, Lisbon and Porto.
Her work is represented in the collections Focus-Abengoa Foundation (Seville), Banco BPI, Eixo Atlântico, Casa da Cultura/Casa Barbot, Museu Municipal de Espinho, Museu Municipal de Amarante and private collections.
Artist Statement
In her painting work, Ana intends to bring to pictorial space the presence of an architectonic language and geometric structures that are almost penetrable and manageable, where we can access to concepts as space, scale, limits, matter and construction. There is an interest in the formal and aesthetical dimension of the architectonic language and the represented constructions, being wrong and impossible, intend to question what makes us feel at home, protected and sheltered
Her recent work can be defined by the expression Painting outside itself, a designation that refers to the disseminated concept of expanded painting but, perhaps in a more poetic and subtle sense, it refers rather to the painting that has ceased to feel comfortable with itself and recognize the ways in which it is conventionally defined, translated or portrayed, borrowing nearby grammars. It is a painting that moves forward in the direction of spatial research, three-dimensionality and the invasion of the real space, remaining faithful to its painting being.
Nonetheless, at the end of such journey, it always returns to its means, processes and questions, attempting to behave honestly and confirming its inexhaustibleness. This painting being is truly connected to the importance of colour in her work, used as groundwork in the creative process and a fundamental composition element that transforms space. Colour has, in Ana’s work, a major role in the process of interaction between pictorial and architectural languages and specificities, being determinant in our perception of depth, volume and illusion.
So, in Ana’s work painting converses with architecture through a mutual questioning and hybridization and, generally, the pictorial dimension prevails, as a result of colour being privileged as an expressive and visual element with a significant transformative potential.
Collections:
Focus-Abengoa Foundation’s Collection, Sevilha, Spain
Municipal Museum Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, Amarante
Municipal Museum of Espinho
Vila Nova de Gaia’s Municipal Auditorium
BPI Bank
Grupo Nautilus
Culture House/ Casa Barbot (Vila Nova de Gaia)/ Gaianima
Atlantic Axle
Private Collections
