Susana Figueira

Artist Susana Figueira was born in Durban, South Africa. Her artistic creation deals with analogies and themes situated between the fantastic and medieval imagery, incorporating the grotesque into playful beings that explore the irony of social relations in a popular religious and profane context.
Throughout her career, Susana Figueira has developed an artistic practice of investigation/production that departs from the history of the grotesque, more precisely from the core of the paintings of medieval altarpieces (in particular, Valencian Gothic works) that involve the aesthetic recovery of Medieval and/or Gothic motifs, demanding special attention, both in their fine detail and in the framing of the rich history of human behavior which, in our opinion, is of a complex and little assumed contemporary nature. It inscribes the patriarchal order of power, of fear, of the celebration of the festive, in opposition to normalization and rational control of life itself. On the other hand, there is a constant application and officinal recovery of ways of doing things from ancient times, applying ancient materials and techniques, such as engraving, polychromy, tempera or gilding, projecting into our days the essence of strangeness and surpri...

She studied Fine Art in Valencia and Funchal
In 2005, he completed the Diploma de Estudios Avanzados (DEA) at the Facultat de Belles Arts de San Carles/Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain.
She completed a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art/Painting (2001) at the Department of Art and Design, UMa.
She was awarded a mobility grant by the MECD (Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport) as part of the PhD programme in Visual and Intermedia Arts at the UPV (2003).
She has devoted part of her research and interest to the restoration of works of art, having taken part in the summer restoration campaign at Valencia Cathedral (2000).
She worked as a conservation and restoration technician at ISOPO, Funchal. Drawing on these experiences, she produces hybrid work that draws on traditional painting techniques, ranging from gilding to tempera painting, amongst others.

Since 1997, he has taken part in several group exhibitions in Portugal and abroad, notably:
“Linha de Partida”, curated by Alexandre Melo, organised by Guilherme de Nóbrega, Centro das Artes, Casa das Mudas.
“Projecto Lonarte 2010” featuring “O carnaval”, organised by Guilherme de Nóbrega.
“Horizonte Móvel”, curated by Isabel Santa Clara, MAC Funchal
“20 Years of Visual Arts in Madeira”, curated by Carlos Valente, Francisco Clode de Sousa and Isabel Santa Clara, MAC Funchal.
He created “The 7 Deadly Sins”, for which he was awarded joint first prize in the Painting category at the Henrique and Francisco Franco Prize, Casa das Mudas (1999); in 2003, he received an Honourable Mention in the 3rd edition of the same prize. In 2007, he organised, alongside Bruno Côrte and Duarte Encarnação, the group exhibition entitled “Animal Feed” at the Funchal Museum of Contemporary Art, presenting “Senhores de Beijacu”, a satirised world serving as a social critique.
“Ida e Volta” with Duarte Encarnação, Edicarte Gallery, Funchal
Represented Casa das Mudas at MARCA Madeira, 2000.
“International Contemporary Youth Creation Exhibition”, Cheng Shiu University Art Centre, Taiwan.
Participated in the 2nd edition of VAIA Video Art International in Alcoi,...