#2 Painting

Raquel Gralheiro is an ironist who works upon a certain threshold of what is tasteful in order to analyse the relation between art and decor. Her canvas, excessive and provocative, are always a means to represent the figure as an element that contrasts with various standards, as if someone was living on the wallpaper, on the sofa's pattern, on the poster. The concept of excess, through infinite details and chromatic profusion is vital for the interpreting of the critical charge, which characterizes this artist. The figure is not merely placed against a background; it is in a competition, also as an excessive figure itself, a derivation or an emanation of its surroundings, as if it was a result of the decorative euphoria. Ultimately, it works out as a clear criticism to the objectification of the individual, the objectification of women, directly implying them with the question of superficial pose and ornament. The woman is way beyond what is expectable; it is under layers and layers of acculturation, which massacre her and create a complex meaning regarding what she can still reveal as natural. Usually fascinated by the figure of women, Raquel Gralheiro takes on an extreme exploration of the female body and imaginary, while stronghold for desire and sophistication. It seems allusive to luxury, given the invariable notion of refinement, as it also fatally alludes to eroticism, granting power to the figures, defining for them a very specific personality which will deal with stereotypes long entrenched in society. All these facts lead to a clear usage of the taste clichés of which contemporary communication abuses. Women as an advertising instrument, women as a means to appeal to senses and subdue the spectator, a woman strongly weakened by that which grants her more distinction and, to a certain extent, power. The Woman in a reductive manner. It is funny how monitoring the limitations of taste may come so close to the irresistibility of figures. The more perfect they are to arouse desire, the closer they come to dismiss aesthetical balance, entering the domain of exaggeration or vulgarity. The work done by Raquel Gralheiro is a long thesis on the border between art and shock, invariably finding a means to provoke her major goal. Among the infinity of colours and patterns, woman is presented immerse in such romanticism both sweetened and instigator, very close to being both adolescent and fantasist with sensuality. Lascivious.