Teresa Murta

Teresa Murta was born in Lisbon and graduated from the Caldas da Rainha School of Arts and Design in 2014. She is currently based in Berlin.

Teresa has been working on standalone series in large format since 2016. While there is no overarching narrative connecting her series, there is an informal conversation between them. She creates layered narratives where inanimate objects take on anthropomorphic attributes, and approaches her canvas with a bold attitude, delving into her past to paint what could be sensed as the female experience.

Teresa’s canvases are filled with items that, despite their lack of realism, have a strong symbolic resonance. The tension between the familiar and the uncanny becoming reminiscent of Surrealism and automatic painting. Objects take on a life of their own, evoking a separate universe while being inextricably linked the idea of the body and its corporality. Teresa paints with deftness, a master colorist, she applies a sophisticated palette of often dissonant harmony, which flirts with Old Masters and disrupts with unexpected Pop neon strokes.

Sophisticated compositions emerge from the spontaneous journey of her brush on the canvas, rather than from prescribed sketching. The formal aspects of Teresa’s paintings appear to shift as we look at them, challenging our perspective and transporting us into unknown regions where our interpretation is welcome to meander.

Her artworks reflect the fleeting nature of recollection. The colors seduce while the incongruous objects disturb. This paradox allows beauty to emerge through the impulsive painterly gestures and objects that eventually populate the canvas, where she persistently obscures the origin of her compositions, mirroring the manner in which our own memories are constructed.

Since her graduation from ESAD, Teresa Murta has been part of more than ten solo exhibitions and multiple group shows in Portugal and abroad. Her works are part of private collections in Mexico, Germany, Portugal and Spain.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022 Fishnet, Instituto Camões Berlin, Berlin

2022 Frozen eggs and wet panties, Uhura Basement, Berlin

2022 Whistle, Whistle, Galeria Nave, Lisboa

2021 AIRBAG, Galeria Aldama Fabre, Bilbao

2020 ABSURDO, Galeria Nave, Príncipe Real, Lisboa

2019 Showcase: Rock. My World., Galeria Nave, Príncipe Real, Lisboa

2019 Rock. My World., ArtRoom, Príncipe Real, Lisboa

2017 Vanish: Illustrated Exhibition, Verso Branco, Lisboa

2017 In>side<Out, Wozen studio, Lisboa

2016 Flat World, Palácio Chiado, Lisboa

2015 The Space (bothers) among things, LX Factory, Lisboa

2013 Sampler, Primeiro Andar, Chiado, Lisboa

‍

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022 From Affirmation to Current Account, Bienal de Cerveira, Portugal

Present Tense, Lage Egal, Berlin

Sine qua non, Galeria Nave, Lisbon

2020 Poster, Marvila, Lisbon

ECHO, Esqina Basement, Esqina Cosmopolitan Lodge, Lisbon

To be defined, MAD Cabana, Lisbon.

2018 ARTFEM - Women Artists, 1st International Biennale of women artists from Macau, Macau.

2016 Universo Surreal - Between the Delirium and the Absurd, Wozen studio, Lisbon.

A-B - IMPLOSION illustration platform, Bar Irreal, Lisbon

2015 LISBON 13.2 NE 1/500000, Centro Cultural do Cartaxo

Meet the Nest, MONA, Santos, Lisbon

First Bath, Casa da Praia, Alcântara, Lisbon

2014 Teaser, Art Grocery, Coimbra

S.U.N.D Festival, Collective Exhibition of Plastic Arts, Fábrica do Braço de Prata, Lisbon

2013 ENTRE PÓLOS, Quintela Palace, Lisbon

2018 Artefem Macau Biennial Catalogue

2017 IMPLOSION - Vanish by MURTA + Room sheet 03