Simenta

I was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1975. Since an early age I always showed some interest in drawing. That interest grew with the passing of the years and my drawings became more elaborated. In 1990 I started my studies in art, still in High School. My drawing teacher, at the time, showed me what the art world was and awoken in me the passion for art. Since then, painting has been my passion, my life.

I have always been very curious about all that concerns art, so as I was progressing in my studies, I started taking, at the same time, some courses related with the subject. In 1991, for instance, I studied Architecture and Urbanism at the NCC - National Center for Culture and, the following year, I took a course on the History of Portuguese Art at the Fine Arts National Society.

At the end of High School, I thought that I wanted to make a career in the art world, so in 1993 I started my degree in Painting, at the College of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, which I finished in 1999. This was a very important time of my life because I was able to explore all the mediums and techniques in Painting and I had contact with the work of the greatest painters. In the beginning I was influenced by some of the XIX Century painters like Van Gogh, Lautrec and Egon Shiele (XIX/XX), but years later I discovered the work of the XX Century painters like Bacon, Lucian Freud, Lígia Clark or even the video artist Bill Viola, who had a very profound impact in my work.

After I finished my degree, I went on working on my paintings, exploring the psychological factor of the human mind, the difference between the public-self and the private-self, and a year later I started working in Loures – a city near Lisbon – in the Loures Museum Network, were I am, at this time, coordinating the installation of all of the exhibitions of Loures Museums and doing the programming of the municipal art galleries.

simenta/October.2008