Bio
Luísa Leão (Brasília, 1998) is an artist, designer and PhD candidate in Arts with a focus on textiles. Based in Portugal, she is currently an artist-in-residence at GamaRama Gallery in the Algarve. Her practice stems from the gestures of sewing and collage she explored in childhood, unfolding today into works that weave ancestral and contemporary influences through an experimental, interdisciplinary approach. With a background in Fashion Design (BA and MA), Luísa began her artistic journey with embroidered illustration in Milan (2018–2019), later expanding her practice to embrace a wide range of textile processes. Since 2022, she has taken part in group exhibitions and residencies, deepening her engagement with wool and exploring its potential as both 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.
