To celebrate 40 years of career of the artist Sofia Areal, CPS is releasing three new screenprints.

Her vibrant plastic grammar, with concentric circles and vivid colors, is strongly present in these three new works.

With one of the most interesting and original paths in contemporary art, Sofia Areal is now one of the most notable Portuguese artists. Her work is part of prestigious collections such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Carmona and Costa Foundation, as well as other significant public and private collections.

Sofia Areal has developed a very distinctive language, working with a chosen vocabulary: the decisive and physical gesture, the spontaneous line; the lines that travel and sometimes transform into letters. The opaque or transparent stains, the flat or three-dimensional shapes, the circular, full or empty, infinite ones. The circle that neither begins nor ends, continuing always in a constant renewal. We perceive «the swirling movement of the forms and their metamorphosis according to the hidden mechanisms of the creation process» (Maria João Fernandes, AICA).

Orquídea, Screenprint, 63 copies

The artist follows the aesthetic of «much», reflecting the intensity of living. The palette of pure colors ignites with the light, claiming a freedom with few limits (perhaps only those of time and the physical medium).

«The "little" does not necessarily represent refinement, often it shows fear, reluctance to expose oneself.» Sofia Areal in an interview.

 

Abelhinha, Screenprint, 63 copies

Sofia Areal gifts us with a solar painting, full of explosion, life, and affection. She connects us to pleasure, joy in the enjoyment of beauty as a breath of fresh air.

«Beauty is a matter of ethics and an aesthetic figure. It is deeply associated with my daily work, which ties me to the world.» Sofia Areal in an interview

Her art, painting for the sake of painting, focuses on concepts related to the sense of harmony, distancing itself from a conceptual approach. Her engagement is revealed in the film by Jorge Silva Melo about the artist, who described her as a unique case in Portuguese culture, with open, expansive, solar, and vital painting. He said, «I want to film her affirmative painting. As she says, "it is a matter of survival".» (Jorge Silva Melo)

Caixas em Luz, Screenprint, 63 copies