Vera Matias de Magalhães
Whose work are you loving these days?
Concepts in art hurt my feelings. I love concepts and I love art but I think that most of the time when they show up together they kind of have been forced to fit in one another. In this sense I have a strong tendency to get passionate about purely visual, sensorial or even playful art. I don't think that every work of art has to have a deep or political meaning/message/statement. Sometimes it is just what it is and it's perfect and it snatches you just like that!
I felt in love with Florence Hutchings work a few years ago. She is UK-based and I never had the chance to see her paintings live but I hope I can do so very soon. For me she has one of the most powerful and mind-blowing works that I have seen in someone my age or even older.
I also enjoy the work of Portugal-based artist Adriana Proganó; I like her painting approach and the way she combines colour and form. I don't know if she has or hasn't a message, but her work just overtakes this ‘need’, so for me it doesn't really matter.
I also have to tell you about Gabriele Herzog. She is Berlin-based and we switched some drawings a few months ago. I just can’t describe her work; it enters through my eyes and moves everything inside. For me her work is just brilliant.
What book is on your nightstand?
I’ve just finished Le Livre Blanc (The White Book) by Jean Cocteau. I was looking for this book for ages! Two weekends ago I went to Lisbon to visit some exhibitions and by chance I found one copy at an art fair. I went crazy ‘cause I finally got one! I read it so quickly, it is brilliant, it is nuts, it is mind-blowing and has a few drawings by the author which are inspiring. It is about his love and attraction to men in a time it wasn’t socially accepted. Cocteau ends the book just like this: ‘I’m not willing just to be tolerated. That wounds my love of love and of liberty.’ I profoundly related to these words and they have been on my mind since I read them.
Your practice in 5 #
#eating
#genderfuck
#repetition
#aesthetics
#vanilla
What's on your mind?
At the moment I’m thinking about an artist book I have to finish to present on a show! I simply want to express myself, it doesn’t really matter what medium I use. Lately I have been focused on painting and I have painted everyday, but I don’t really see myself as a painter. I just know that I have a deep will of putting myself out of my body. Lately I have been doing it through painting, but I can wake up tomorrow and start writing. I love to write. I want to put all my inner drives in this artist book which is a little bit risky. It will probably taste like all week food in one meal only: and this pleases me!
How does the body - yours and others' - influence your work?
I look at the body as a state: a state of endless encounter between us and the universe. I can’t isolate the body from experiences and think of it just as a vehicle to feel and experience the world. For me it works as a particle of a much bigger and complex organism, so the body and its experiences (physical, mental, sensorial) work as one. At the same time my work and my thoughts tend to address to pleasure at all time, ideologically and aesthetically. So how does the body influence my work? It is clear that it has to be there: in the body I meet everything and everybody around me; the body eats, fucks, paints, ages, loves, writes, watches, smells, tastes, hurts, moves... the body is so meaningful to my work as it is to my existence.
Vera lives and works in Porto, Portugal.
October 2019
