Exhibition: 'Sustaining the Line with My Fingers' by Helena Almeida

Helena Almeida stands as a pivotal figure in contemporary Portuguese art, significantly shaping its evolution since the 1970s. Throughout her career, she has navigated across painting, photography, drawing, and performance, continuously probing the boundaries of each medium. Central to her work is the body—specifically her own—which serves as a tool, material, and language within an artistic space where gesture, image, and presence converge. Following her early explorations of breaking traditional canvases in the late 1960s, Almeida delves into new material experimentation, employing horsehair thread to create intricate drawings on paper. The exhibition showcases three works from this period, where lines transform from mere descriptive traces into actions that define a space. These lines extend the body and create a relationship between the inside and outside, bridging the pictorial plane and reality. Through her precise and minimal gestures, Almeida activates her surroundings: the act