If the feeling of distant familiarity had a visual representation, Maria Capelo would be one of it’s intermediaries.
Trees, mountains, pathways, skies and bodies of water, diffused between shades of vine blacks, ochres, greens, blues and cobalt violets – where foci of light and shadow dance among themselves. Maria Capelo always departs from direct observation, but only in her atelier, through a process of recomposing and organising the various elements, does the final panorama show itself.
Her curved brushstrokes and “smudged” sfumato transport the viewer through time, across a materialisation of “frozen spaces”, ephemeral and fleeting – arboreal sites, embraced by silence, though always with traces of human passage. Simultaneously, the various literary and cinematographic references, which absorb Capelo, lead her to these locations, allowing her to evoke a long tradition of universal landscapes.
She has exhibited frequently since 1996 and includes amongst her recent solo shows Rosas Sombras Rosas (Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes, Lisbon, 2025); MAIO NESTE INVERNO (Galeria Nuno Centeno, Porto, 2024); Vem a chuva e vem o vento (CAV – Encontros de Fotografia, Coimbra); O dia já fecha as portas (MAAT- Museu de Arte, Arquitectura e Tecnologia. Edifício da Central, Lisboa); Vento Espesso (Museu da Cidade, Casa Guerra Junqueiro, Porto, 2022); Do Planalto se dobra a montanha (Museu da Cidade, Palacete Viscondes de Balsemão, Porto e Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisboa, 2022); As coisas do mundo são rocha (Pavilhão Branco, Lisboa, 2019); Deita-te, levanta-te e agora deita-te (Fundação Carmona e Costa, Lisboa, 2017). Prominent recent joint exhibitions include Tudo o que eu quero – Artistas portuguesas de 1900 a 2020 (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian e CCOD, Lisboa e Tours, 2021/22);
Taking Root (KIT- Kunst im Tunnel, Düsseldorf, 2019); Pedro Costa: Companhia (Fundação de Serralves, Porto, 2018); RE: Imagining Europe (BOX Freiraum, Berlim, 2017). She won the Flad Drawing Award 2022 and her works are featured in various public and private collections, most notably the Centro de Arte Moderna, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa; Colecção de Arte Contemporânea do Estado, Portugal; Colecção de Arte Portuguesa Fundação EDP; Colecção Norlinda e José Lima, Centro de Arte Oliva, São João da Madeira, and Fundação Carmona e Costa, Lisboa.
