Créditos: Nuno Alex
Bio
Luísa Leão (Brasília, 1998) lives and works in Faro, Algarve, where she has been artist-in-residence at Galeria GamaRama since 2024. A PhD candidate in Arts at the University of Beira Interior (UBI), she holds a bachelor's and master's degree in Fashion Design from the same institution, with academic exchanges at the Polytechnic Institute of Milan and the Federal University of Ceará. Her practice has its origins in the sewing and collage techniques she explored in childhood, now revisited in abstract works that combine ancestral and contemporary references in an experimental and interdisciplinary approach. She began her artistic journey with embroidered illustration in Milan (2018-2019), later expanding her practice to encompass a wide range of textile processes. Since 2022, she has participated in exhibitions and residencies, deepening her involvement with wool and exploring its potential as a material and metaphor.
Statement
Through fibers, fabrics, and gestures, my work navigates themes of time, ancestry, body, feminism, territory, and sustainability. Living for many years in Portugal’s “City of Wool,” I developed a strong connection to its heritage, while a creative pause allowed me to immerse myself in local communities and learn ancestral textile practices. Wool has since become central to my research, embodying both memory and resistance. My pieces weave together a spiritual dialogue with my ancestors and fragments of myself, bringing heritage textiles, fibers of diverse origins, reused materials and textures gathered from daily life into abstract and tactile compositions. They tell stories through matter, silence, and shared memory.
Créditos: André Matos, Nuno Alex e Luize Gulbe