“Lena Gal” – has been painting professionally for over twenty five years. The apparent ease of her composition reveals mastery, dedication and nurturing. Her art is eclectic, dynamic and technically skillful.
She likes to explore the borderline between dreams and reality and paints largely from memory and imagination. More interested in the inaccuracies of memory than precision, she has the ability to capture the feminine form with a sense of integrity and harmony.
Born in 1957, on São Miguel, Azores, her art starts with nature and ends with nature using intense earth colors, reminiscent of the volcanic Azorean scorched landscape. Her intuitive talent creates women contours, shaped like islands, symbolic of the insular isolation of her native place.
She also has the instinctive ability to incorporate the human dimension into the universalism of Mother Nature. The almost religious and mystic quality of her creations expresses passion and sensuality, calmness and contemplation.
Lena Gal is a listed artist featured in several magazines, newspapers, and art publications in Portugal and abroad. In 2009, she published an autobiographical book titled Mulheres Terra – Mãe, 20 Anos de Pintura.
Her work is represented in public and private collections and has been exhibited individually and collectively in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Finland, Mexico, Argentina, United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Most recently, the city of Ribeira Grande, on São Miguel, has dedicated a permanent exhibition of her work, at Casa Lena Gal [Lena Gal’s Home], a public space dedicated to her life and work.