ABOUT

Madalena Leitão (1991, Lisbon) is a multifaceted artist, based in Lisbon.

Deeply influenced by the creative environment in which she grew up, Madalena knows the importance of freedom of expression from an early age, immersed in spaces where painting and experimentation were lived as a daily practice.

With degrees in Animation and Film, much of her career has been shaped by self-learning, intuitively exploring different techniques and materials.

After an initial period dedicated to Cinema and Animation, she moved to travel and discover more. During a period immersed in the Equestrian world, she worked as a horse portraitist in international competitions, reconnecting with (simply) drawing and deepening her sensitivity to movement, anatomy, and energy. In this process, she rediscovered the pleasure of capturing the essence of small things.

Her most recent transition to painting (2020) stems from her encounter with a technique as instinctive as oil, which emphasises gesture and spontaneity.

Lately, her paintings are a synthesis of all the experiences, memories, fragments, and familiar presences that gain a recurring role in her work. The canvas becomes a confidant, holding the echoes of family, memory, and lived experience.

Her almost unconscious approach, combined with a vibrant color palette, results in a work that balances the figurative and the abstract, capturing emotions, atmospheres, and states of mind. Perhaps, a sensibility quietly rooted in a lineage of intimate and radical artistic explorations.