The exhibition CHAMA [FLAME] curated by Sara Antónia Matos, featuring works by Júlio Pomar, Rita Ferreira and Sara Bichão, at the Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar, continues a programme of exhibitions at the Atelier-Museu that aims to connect Júlio Pomar’s work with the work of other artists and establish new linkages between the painter’s work and contemporaneity..
Again, this exhibition has been conceived from the very beginning as a specific intervention in the Atelier-Museu’s space, where Júlio Pomar and rwo young artists – Rita Ferreira and Sara Bichão – exhibit their works,
As artists with few materials and texts on their works published to date, it was considered appropriate to develop a first individual publication for each in order to promote broader knowledge and understanding of their work. In this way, the Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar fulfils one of its strongest commitments: to contribute to the dissemination and development of contemporary art and its artists.
About the artists:
JÚLIO POMAR
Júlio Pomar was born in Lisbon in 1926. He attended the António Arroio Secondary Art School in Lisbon and the Fine Arts Academies of Lisbon and Porto. In 1942 he participated in his first group show, in Lisbon, and presented his first solo exhibition in Porto, in 1947, where he exhibited drawings. In these early years, his opposition to Salazar’s dictatorial regime gained him four months in prison, the confiscation of one of his paintings by the political police and the destruction of the 100 m2 mural painting he had executed for the Cinema Batalha in Porto, which was painted over. He lived in Portugal until 1963, when he moved to Paris. He presently lives between Paris and Lisbon. In the early 1990s, a sojourn in Alto Xingú in the Brazilian Amazon would result in the exhibitions ‘Los Indios’ (Galeria 111, ARCO, Madrid) and ‘Les Indiens’ (Galerie Georges Lavrov, Paris), in 1990, followed by ‘Pomar/Brasil’, a survey exhibition organised by the Modern Art Centre of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which travelled to Brasilia, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon.
RITA FERREIRA
Rita Ferreira (1991), lives and works in Lisbon. She holds a degree in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon. In 2016, she won the Young Creators Scholarship from the Centro Nacional da Cultura. In 2017, she held her first individual exhibition at Galeria Diferença in Lisbon, entitled ‘Boca Seca Coluna Húmida’ [Dry Mouth Damp Spine]. Her presence in collective exhibitions includes: ‘A coisa está preta’, Bregas, Lisbon (2017); ‘Primeira Página’, Galeria Módulo, Lisbon ‘O Papel do desenho. O mundo é a minha imaginação’, Galeria Angeles Baños, Badajoz; FUSO- Anual de Video de Arte Internacional de Lisboa, Museu da Electricidade, Lisbon; Summer Calling, Sala do Veado – MNHNC, Lisbon in 2013; Piquete, Residências Coop, Lisbon and GAB-A, FBAUL, Lisbon in 2012.
SARA BICHÃO
Sara Bichão (1986), lives and works in Lisbon. She studied Visual Arts at the Faculty of Fine Art at the University of Lisbon. She has completed various artistic residencies including Residency Unlimited, New York (2012), PIRA ADM, Mexico City (2016) and Artistes en Résidence, Clermont-Ferrand (2017). In 2008, she won the BPI/FBAUL prize, and was a finalist in the Jovens Pintores – Fidelidade Mundial competition (honourable mention) and Anteciparte’09 in 2009. Since 2009, she has exhibited her work regularly, including at the Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston; Galeria Silvestre, Madrid; Rooster Gallery, New York; Artopia Gallery, Milan; Arevalo Gallery, Miami; and in public spaces such as the Belgrade Cultural Centre, the MAAT, the Portuguese Communications Foundation, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. Her work is represented in various public collections: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Fundação EDP, Fidelidade Mundial, MidFirst Bank Arizona, among others.