Galeria Francisco Fino is thrilled to share the representation of Helena Almeida’s work.
Helena Almeida (Lisbon, 1934 - Sintra, 2018) was born in Lisbon, where she lived and worked until 2018.
She graduated in Painting from Lisbon’s Fine Art School in 1955. In 1964 she was granted a scholarship in Paris by the Gulbenkian Foundation.
Her work covers a wide range of media, including painting, drawing, performance, video, installation and photography. In her first solo show in Portugal (Buchholz, 1967), Almeida presented a group of geometric and abstract paintings that challenged the conventional canvas’ limits.
Around 1969, the artist started photographing herself, usually performing different poses in her studio, either alone, interacting with objects found in this space (chairs, benches, mirror fragments) or accompanied by architect and artist Artur Rosa, her husband. Helena Almeida’s practice is often associated with distinctive blue, black or red acrylic ink strokes painted over black and white photographs. In series like Tela Habitada [Inhabited Canvas], Estudo para um enriquecimento interior [Study for inner improvement] or Desenho Habitado [Inhabited Drawing] the artist can be seen interacting with isolated painting and drawing materials, such as a canvas, a pen, a brush or ink, exploring the plastic and disciplinary potentiality of Painting.
