Works by
Lena Gal

May 26-June 30, 2005

Lena Gal was born in San Miguel, Açores. The inspiration for her work has a deep connection to the land, specifically to the island where she was born. She creates intimate works exploring relationships between the landscape and its people and culture. She writes much about the endurance of longing and nostalgia, and her work is filled with the impressions of daily life – most often depicting Portuguese women in traditional dress – and through these works seeks to define and express archetypal feminine ideals of womanhood.

Of her work she writes,

“The island within my soul is made universal in the pictorial language I use; one that allows me to establish an intimate dialogue and provides the opportunity for me to reference figurative, poetic, personal and monumental allegories.

In my work I desire to awake certain emotions in which the light and color not only uncover and reflect the goddess in each woman, but express my own spirit; and where the truth is reflected under its own terms. I paint women as my preferred theme but not in the feminist way, but because, feminism is part of the universe and part of me.
Women, mother, friend, embroiderer, women with black shawls and veils, women at the window, sitting at the window, sitting at the door, telling stories and dreaming, looking at the sea, the horizon, and expecting…”

“A ilha na minha alma universaliza-se na linguagem pictórica,estabelecendo um dialógo intimista, num figurativo poético, pessoal e de grandes alegorias.

Pretendo despertar emoções e uma partilha de cumplicidades e afinidades, onde a luz e a cor se transfiguram nas deusas dentro de cada mulher que se vão descobrindo, onde busco no mais infenito do meu método de trabalho as expressões do meu estado de espírito, e onde a verdade pelos tons que os poetas exaltam a liberdade se quer assumir.

Pinto a mulher como tema de preferencia mas não de uma forma feminista, mas sim porque o feminino faz parte do meu universo, de mim mesma

Mulher, mãe, amiga, a bordadeira, mulher de xailes negros, de véus, mulher á janela, sentada á porta, conta-se contos, histórias, e sonhos, olha-se o mar, o horizonte, e espera-se......”

For the last 20 years, she has been actively exhibiting her work through national and international venues. Her work has been recently show at the Performing Arts Center Gallery, University of South Carolina, Spartanburg, SC; Galleria 65 A, Lisbon, Portugal; Gallery House of Europe, Austria; Galeria Pirâmide, Lisbon, Portugal; Emil Tampere, Finland; Le Festé Alais, France; Centro de La Villa, Madrid, Spain; and Sharjah Arts Museum, United Arab Emirates.-L'

Gal was educated at the Cooperativa de Gravadores Portugues (Portuguese Engraves Cooperative) and the Nacional de Belas Artes (National Society of Fine Arts). She lives and works in the Açores.