About the artist
ARTIST STATMENT
My artistic practice is a combination of painting, drawing, sculpting, collage, and elementary engraving techniques such as monoprint and woodcut. Always looking for beauty in the unconventional and with a keen interest in recycling waste, don´t be surprised to find me digging through rubbish on construction sites or "treasure hunting" at the beach for objects and materials that catch my eye and meet some of my ideas.I draw most of my inspiration from everyday life, people and nature ; but my earlier experiences in life, childhood memories, loss, and a consequent "joie de vivre" that coexists with a certain melancholy also tend to appear in many of my abstract paintings.Making the most of the colour and texture of the materials, in this game of “hide and seek” that characterises my practice, the artworks often provoke in those who see them a certain sense of calm, peace and light; even though the under layers of most is the chaos of the emotional storms natural to human experience.
BIO
Mariana Horgan (b. 1985, Lisbon) is a Portuguese artist working in abstract painting, sculpture, and monotype. She studied at Ar.Co – Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual in Lisbon (2019) and completed Painting and Relief Printing at the Art Academy in London (2022). Her work spans large and medium-scale canvases and works on paper, building layered surfaces with acrylic, powdered pigment, and washes, often incorporating materials such as ash, soil, graphite, charcoal, and fabric fragments. Her muted palette, punctuated by moments of chromatic intensity, reflects a tension between gesture and revision, control and improvisation. Rooted in the legacy of Abstract Expressionism, her work channels its emotional immediacy through a contemplative lens — echoing the restrained, memory-laden gestures of Cy Twombly.
EDUCATION
2022, Portrait Painting Masterclass with Tim Benson – The Art Academy, London
2022, Relief Printing with Jackie Smith– The Art Academy, London
2019/2021, Painting full program at Ar.Co - Centro de arte & Comunicação visual
2019, Oil Painting Course at St. Julian’s School
2019, Life Sculpture Course at St. Julian’s School
2018, Life drawing lessons at St. Julian’s School
2007/8, Life drawing lessons at Faculdade de Belas Artes de Lisboa
2007, Territorial Management 1st semester at NOVA Universidade de Lisboa
2006, Dirección de Empresas, ERASMUS, at Universidade Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid
2002/6, Marketing Management at IPAM - Marketing School for Business
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025, PRIMEIRO GESTO, Galeria Belard, Lisbon
2023, RECOLLECTION solo show, Galeria Belard, Lisbon
2021, “MOONWALK”, solo show, MODO M Gallery, Palácio Chiado, Lisbon
2020, “PULL THROUGH ISOLATION”, Lisbon
2019, “MAR”, Casa Oliveiras, Lisbon
2019, “O Condão de ser pequenino”, Biblioteca Arquitecto Cosmelli Santana, Lisbon
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
2025 SALON, O PRIMEIRO by Subjektiv, Art Room, Lisbon
2024, Subjektiv Collective Show, ArtVerse, Paris
2024, 2.0 collective show, Galeria Belard, Lisbon
2024, PRE[VIEW], Galeria Belard, Lisbom
2023, Exposição Solidária 2023 Associação QUINTA ESSÊNCIA, Colectivo 284, Lisbon
2022, PRELÚDIO collective show, Galeria Belard, Lisboa
2022, EXPOSIÇÃO SOLIDÁRIA Associação QUINTA ESSÊNCIA, Colectivo 284, Lisbon
2022, QDM22 Group show and auction, Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade do Porto, Oporto
2021, CAPITI “Dar luz a esta causa” auction/group show, Museu da Eletricidade, Lisbon
2021, “Ar.Co Exposição de Outono 2021”, group show, Almada, Portugal
2020, “Exposição de Outono”, collective show, Ar.Co, Portugal
ART RESIDENCIES
2020, Bombu Minino social cultural project and Bento Oliveira´s Studio, Mindelo, Cabo Verde
