Fala Mariam

Fala Mariam de Lisboa (Lisbon, 1962), an anagram of the name Mafalda Menezes de Azevedo, has since the mid-1980s pursued a singular path in contemporary Portuguese painting, marked by a persistent investigation into the very nature of painting, the image and perception.

A grant holder of the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian between 1986 and 1988, she has been distinguished with several prizes over the course of her career, among them the UN Painting Prize (1992), the Prémio Maluda (2002) and the Painting Prize of the Academia Nacional de Belas-Artes (2008). In parallel, she has developed artistic creation projects supported by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and built a continuous, discreet and independent career, far removed from strategies of media exposure.

Her work has been described as “pintura-pintura”, an expression used by José-Augusto França, and is characterised by an investigation centred on light, shadow, time and the construction of the image. Moving between painting on canvas and on paper, her work shifts between material density and perceptual subtlety, proposing visual spaces where memory, symbol and experience coexist.

Over almost four decades she has held numerous solo exhibitions in leading institutions and galleries, including the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, the Banco de Portugal, the Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes, Galeria São Mamede, the Fundação Mário Soares and, more recently, Galeria Zé dos Bois and Galeria São Mamede, where she presented As Visões Possíveis e os Poucos Retratos (2024), accompanied by the launch of the monograph Fala Mariam de Lisboa - Pintura 2003-2019, published by Documenta, with an essay by Tomás Maia. Her work also forms part of the Colecção de Arte Contemporânea do Estado (CACE), reinforcing the institutional recognition of her career.

Alongside painting, she is active as a musician, playing the trombone and collaborating regularly with the musician Sei Miguel, exploring affinities between visual practice, sound and improvisation.