‘I don’t know what my life was without a way to express myself. All my life is written in my works, they speak from my soul’ - Natália Gromicho

Natália Gromicho’s work is often concerned with perception and reality. Her canvases are as energetic as the Lisbon streets with desiccating slogans and sunset red riots, and it is easy to see the personal influence of this bright chaotic city. Painted lines scrawl over deserted pastel buildings, the ubiquitous graffiti contrasting with the multiple layers.

Gromicho controls temperature and atmosphere as though adjusting a thermostat or volume button. The dialled tones range across canvas from cool-eyed blues to fiery madder hues. Her highly pigmented glazes gloss over boundaries between figures and abstractions, creating a shift in focus and scale. The use of wet and dry brushwork adds to the subtle variations in mood- shiny as slick taillights in the rain, as grubby as the exhaust fumes that blacken the puddles.

The recurring image of a headless and armless female mannequin verges on the surreal, and within this metaphysical framework Gromicho paints with an anything-might-happen wildness. Her paintings are slowly piecing together a philosophical mosaic- and with more and more in demand, her unique vision only gets clearer.

Natália Gromicho was born in Lisbon, Portugal. At the Faculdade de Belas Artes de Lisboa, she specialised in painting and went on to study Intensive Painting at the private ArCo School of Art in Lisbon. Gromicho has also collaborated with the Cuban artist Hans Varela, and in 1999 won the Radio Comercial competition to design an alternative logo for The Rolling Stones’ Bridges to Babylon tour.

Having participated in more than 70 solo and group exhibitions, the artist has already represented her country in Italy, Brazil, USA, Australia, Russia and France. Her works are now in several private and institutional collections worldwide.