Helena Almeida

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 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.