Madalena Pequito Portugal, b. 1996

Madalena Pequito is a Portuguese visual artist who lives and works in Lisbon. She studied Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon and completed a Master's degree in Art and Cultural Enterprise at Central Saint Martins in London. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Painting, funded by FCT – the Foundation for Science and Technology.

Her artistic practice is rooted in painting and extends into installation and participatory and collaborative forms of expression. Her work explores questions of identity, cultural difference, collective memory and the complex relationships through which individuals construct a sense of belonging. At the heart of her research lies an ongoing reflection on roots, both in their literal and metaphorical senses. Drawing parallels between the underground networks of trees and the structures of human relationships, she investigates how family, culture, memory and inherited narratives shape our understanding of who we are and where we belong.

In her most recent work, trees and their roots take centre stage, becoming metaphors for human relationships, interdependence and the preservation of memory. The artist is particularly interested in how we connect with one another, preserve our differences and keep alive the stories that shape our identities. The sharing of stories, particularly imagined ones, also plays an important role in her practice. As these stories are told, they are transformed, acquiring new meanings, emotions and possibilities of existence. Alongside this, she explores festive and collective worlds, spaces in which memory is challenged and identity can be reinvented, placing emphasis on encounters, togetherness and what truly brings us together.

Her work is also informed by the contradictions and vulnerabilities inherent in contemporary artistic life. Sacrifice, insecurity, anxiety, fear and uncertainty are not merely themes within her practice, but experiences that become embedded in her visual and material language. By bringing intimate and collective narratives together, Pequito creates spaces in which questions of identity and belonging remain open, unstable and in constant negotiation.

Her creative process unfolds through an ongoing dialogue between words and images. At times, it begins with spontaneous thoughts or brief notes; on other occasions, the image itself precedes the text. Although interconnected, words and images are understood as autonomous entities, preserving the aesthetic power of painting as an independent language.

Driven by colour, texture and contrast, she explores the tension between the unfinished and visual saturation, between what remains concealed and what asserts itself before the viewer. Through patterns, movement and organic forms, she seeks to create images that capture suspended moments: the imminence of an event, the instant before something happens, or a story that remains unresolved.

Madalena Pequito has exhibited internationally in Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Macau and Budapest. Her work has been presented at events and exhibitions including the Contextile Biennial in Guimarães, the ArtFem Macau Biennial and the Chicago Art Fair, as well as in exhibitions in New York, Budapest, Macau and Lisbon.

She was awarded a grant by FLAD – the Luso-American Development Foundation, which supported her participation in artist residencies in New York at Kunstraum LLC and Mothership. The work developed during this period culminated in her solo exhibition Shared Roots / Private Jokes, presented in 2024 at Freight+Volume Gallery in Tribeca, New York, with the support of FLAD, Instituto Camões and the Consulate General of Portugal in New York.