BIO
Lígia Fernandes (1985, Setúbal) Is an visual artist based between Estonia and Portugal, working in the intersection of visual arts, socially engaged art and management/organising. Graduated in Drawing from the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of Lisbon, holding Master degree in Painting at the same faculty, Lígia Fernandes (1985, Setúbal) uses drawing and painting as tools to explore cultural universes, ethnographies, and identities. Her universe is a space where fit sharing, collaboration and reflection, and is often the result of a site-specific research. The works aim to address the idea of home: the connection to a place and its identity and collective memory, attempting to portrait memories and to create intimacy between the observer and the figure. There is, in all her work, the constant awareness of a Portuguese point of view. Lígia has been dedicated to drawing and painting since 2014, having participated in several exhibitions, residencies and exchange programs in Portugal, Hungary, Montenegro, Latvia and Estonia. Since 2020 she also co-created several on-going art and community projects such as Panorama, Lisbon Drawing Club, Artists Anonymous, Art&Craft Refúgio and Mais Uno +1.
STATEMENT
My work generally uses drawing as a starting point, which can then be explored in different medias and supports, from works on paper to public interventions. I often make observational drawings from found images, places or people. Drawing is my tool to connect and relate with the world, It is my invitation for empathy and for learning.
I aim to address ethnographical and social aspects through collaboration with local communities. I like to work with the individual, the intimate, the almost forgotten. Interviews, family albums, personal stories and popular knowledge, are usually collected and used for developing artistic projects, which aim to portrait the idea of collective memory and identity. I’m interested in the tradition and orality in the transmission of knowledge (in opposition with globality and mass-production).
One can say there is a relational, ethnographical and social aspect in my work.
Ultimately, I see it as a work about connection and human essence.
Contact Me
Fernandes