Manuela Pimentel Portugal, 1979

Manuela Pimentel's work is characterized by a harmonious blend of influences from erudite historical culture and elements of vernacular culture, producing a multifaceted and deeply textured body of work that reflects the complexity and richness of Portuguese cultural identity.

Her work combines elements of local tile-making with the aesthetics of urban art, inspired by national tradition and culture and the post-war production of artists such as Mimmo Rotella, Raymond Hains, and Jacques Villeglé.

Manuela Pimentel incorporates into her mural installations fragments of street posters, eroded by time, which she herself collects and reuses to convert into the primary surface of her pictorial interventions. Through the use of acrylic paint, she masterfully recreates the traditional figures of tile-making from the golden age of the Portuguese Baroque, drawing on their aesthetic language, conventional colors, iconography, and style.

By merging these elements with the resins, rough mortars, and neon lights that characterize her artistic production, Manuela Pimentel redefines the role of the tile, promoting its transition from a merely decorative local expression to a global artistic affirmation that transcends the boundaries of collective memory and cultural context.

Through this combination, the artist explores the concepts of impermanence, duality, and ambiguity. She skillfully integrates the visual canons of the Baroque period with the raw aesthetics of "Street art," resulting in an impressive interplay of textures and contrasts that simultaneously evoke sensations of permanence and ephemerality.

Manuela Pimentel's compositions also unite the sacred and the profane. They are infused with a poetic dramaticism and rationalism that invite viewers to contemplate the transient nature of existence and the enduring impact of cultural legacies.