Apaixonarte is pleased to present “Teimosas Ervas Daninhas” (Stubborn Weeds), an individual exhibition by Rita Ravasco.
The opening with the presence of the artist is scheduled for May 31, starting at 6 pm. The exhibition will run until June 29.
Free entry.
SYNOPSIS
Rita Ravasco is a 30-year-old plastic artist who traded the Alentejo plains for the Lisbon hills.
Explores various areas, from painting to murals, from stop motion to toy making. Owner of a very keen sense of justice, she can not remain indifferent to the current problems of our society.
This exhibition is a walk through a fantasy garden. An intense projection of colors and shapes, on a schizophrenic roller coaster that takes us travelling through Rita’s universe. Everything flows through the immense details, full of strong colors and symbolism, that preliminarily send us to a safe place, right in the center of our childhood dreams.
But, as our eyes walk through this garden, we slowly begin to move away from the perfect, utopian world and run into the raw and harsh reality. This reality is inhabited by a society that tries to be more just, in an attempt to repair the mistakes of the past. But at the end of the day, always stumbles over some stubborn weeds that block the advance.
In a period where time passes faster, the clock is already tightening the wrist and the world begins to spin faster, it is necessary to uncross the arms, to clean and protect the garden from all the weeds that persist in appearing.
Rita’s works represent a constant magical battle between good and evil. A journey back in time through pop culture products of the fast consumer society, with the passing of colorful cereals, model soldiers, cotton buds, matches and popcorn, by unknown and other well-known characters. Touching on issues such as consumerism, pollution, animal rights and their extinction.
A good dose of masked reality with visual poetry, achieved through the fusion of the brushes with the digital techniques. A call for attention to humanity and its future.
BIOGRAPHY
When I think of the beginnings of my artistic journey, my first contact with the creative universe, the first images that show up in my memory are childhood references, such as: the classic colouring pens Molin (that delicious range of colours that gave life to the drawings and colouring books) and plasticine, which made the construction of imaginary characters possible.
My childhood and the place where I grew up are also undoubtedly important points for what I am doing today. Growing up in the Alentejo, more precisely in Mourão, allowed me to develop a close look at what is around me. It also provided me with a strong connection with nature, especially with animals (which often appear in my work).
In 2010, I started my degree in Plastic Arts – Painting Intermedia – at the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar. When I finished my degree, I did not know exactly what I would do with everything I had learned – I started by not associating myself with any record and form of expression. At that moment, with so much information, I felt an almost schizophrenic madness, in which I tested several things in the artistic universe: drawings, video, photography, stopmotion, painting, compositions with objects, digital means allied to painting. All this material was published on social networks.
The demand and interest in my work continued to increase and the search was becoming increasingly associated with the exploitation of digital media in conjunction with painting- study of colour and themes based on people and everything they represent, animals and nature . The interest in mural painting also arose at that time, an interest that has grown and I have been developing.
Text by Rita Ravasco
