Description
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
“I consider my art an invitation to reconnect to nature and ourselves. By juxtaposing urban life and nature, my pieces aim to evoke contemplation, and ultimately, a return to memories of more serene times as the start of a self-healing journey. The enigmatic feminine figures akin to the relaxed presence of the wild motifs which serve as recreation of my own identity and suggest that nature can offer us the ability to restore tranquillity in a chaotic world. This is my inspiration: a message of hope and beauty, life and rebirth.”
“Bold” is an analogue collage & mixed media piece, inspired by London’s cosmopolitan life, fashion, as well as memories of a childhood inhabited by the exotic and vibrant chromatics of the west coast of Southern Africa. BBC art critic and curator Maeve Doyle described her work as “very, very transcendent pieces that mix realism with spirituality and surrealism”, a phrase that perfectly applies to these artworks that take us on a journey through dream realities, symbolic images and metamorphoses that result from the artist’s fascinating psyche. Her work invites us to dive into an elegant story of ascension and serenity, a return to nature through an unique journey inhabited by exotic animals, vibrant and peaceful colors, sensuous female figures that metamorphose in front of our eyes, performing as a compliment to feminine beauty and symbol of women’s empowerment.
Catarina Diaz was born in Benguela, in 1969. Belonging to a family of painters, poets, potters and musicians, she has been drawing and painting since she was little. At the age of 5, she moved to Portugal, but brought with her the vibrant chromaticism of the African sunset, the flamingos, the bougainvillea that marked her imagination and her creations. After dedicating part of her career to teaching, Public and International Relations in Portugal, she decided to embrace the cosmopolitan life of London, where she developed her artistic work and research. The city that also became a source of daily inspiration for her works. In London, her master was artist David Mach, a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, who led her to a new perspective on analogue collage and on the use of mixed techniques. This perspective made her artistic path and identity clear, but it was her genius that turned her into an up-and-coming internacional artist. She participates in several solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the United States, highlighting the recent digital installation in Oxford street, London, in a project curated by W1curates, The Visionary Projects of New York, in an exhibition curated by the Voss Gallery of São Francisco and Galeria Cael in Milan, also participated in the 5th edition of the Art3f art fair, in Paris, represented by the Madrid gallery Monat, in the collective exhibition DE.MO in Milan and Forteventura, organized by MADS Art Gallery and she exhibited at the Sweet Hotel and Spa gallery, in Figueira da Foz. In Catarina’s artistic path, still stand out a set of artworks permanently exhibited in the scenario of the television program Cristina ComVida, on TVI, in Portugal, and her artworks were featured on Vlog Middleagedminx by BBC announcer Jo Good, on Artist Talk Magazine, on Contemporary Art Magazine, on Artists Antology Contemporary Art 20/21, and on iconic British magazines such as House and Garden, The World of Interiors, Tatler, Vanity Fair and Vogue. The artist was recently awarded the Collector’s Vision International Art Award for outstanding achievements and potential.
