Crawford-Cabral

2016, two Pictures for the exhibition Grey at the Big Gallery, Dortmund, and Galerie am Donhof, Zwickau, Germany. The feeling of anxiety and worry takes place. Rahmenbedingungen (conditions) and Inside-outside refer to our unsettling times:  Barriers and divisions - I'm in it, but my hands are out.

"Modern Madonna hides bizarre animals in her arms, and meets the gaze of the viewer confidently, sometimes searchingly.
Beauty and aggressiveness come together in this universe, inherently it becomes increasingly independent. "

Dr. Sabine Weicherding (from the preface to the catalogue "The Dortmunder group dialog" 2014)

what do they want ... all these women?

"We soon become aware of a female outlook that challenges the viewer, provoking questions and holding certain conceptions of modernity, or of „so-called modern“ painting up for scrutiny. Her passage to artistic maturity is achieved through a dichotomous imagination, personal and collective, that serve as a buffer against the troubles of the modern world and allow us to review her short but nonetheless past artistic career while providing continuity to her path of liberation."

José Berardo, President of the Berardo Collection

from the preface to the catalogue A Mãe das Mães, 2008

Associating and concretising characterise the works of Maria Teresa Crawford Cabral. The process of finding the final picture is determined by random elements – scars on the picture object, colour structures, imprints of the body. Cabral develops poetically surreal paintings from these unspecified circumstances, which remain puzzling in spite of their vividness. They are like a narrative kaleidoscope, which generates uncountable views without decoding the presentation (...)

Dr. Sabine Weicherding,

September 2012 ( from the preamble - Associations and concretising -)

Two pictures:

the great-granddaughter of Monalisa

- Bisnonna, dove sei ? Sono qui -

and the portrait of Aster for the BP Portrait Award 2016 - National Portrait Gallery (not selected)

"The White Pictures: this series, which is thought to be as yet unfinished, is united by the fact that each picture tells a pared-down story. The works say what gives them the title - in some of them is just one word, like Mamã or Protest. Unlike almost of the other series, where the narrative is multifaceted, plural and ambiguos, here the representation is direct, pared to the minimum and clear, which may be why the pictures are white."

Dr. Rui Carita from the catalogue A Mãe das Mães, 2008.

„ The adult male figure is therefore partially omitted in Maria Teresa's works, and if any allusion to it can be discerned other thanin blurry backgrounds, this is due to the appearance of pregnant women and in rare cases of children. These women seem to have become pregnant on their own, in certain situations the man may seems to have been replaced by animals of markedly male symbology, such as cockerels or bulls. In other cases, however, some animals also possess a female symbology, such as elegant but agressive herons in flight.“

Dr. Rui Carita,  from the catalogue A Mãe das Mães, 2008

"(...) The truth is that I do not know what statements my pictures contain. Maybe each of them is just only another creature. I do not ask about their sense of being, just as I do not ask about the sense of being of a flamingo or a cactus. I make "things" out of unclear ideas."

Maria Teresa Crawford Cabral

( from the interview /Urban Riche Gallery, 2016)

emptiness does not exist

"(...) The truth is that I do not know what statements my pictures contain. Maybe each of them is just only another creature. I do not ask about their sense of being, just as I do not ask about the sense of being of a flamingo or a cactus. I make "things" out of unclear ideas."

Maria Teresa Crawford Cabral

( from the interview /Urban Riche Gallery, 2016)

„ (…) The chronological sequence that I was shown offered me a look into an early experimental abstract phase and ended with the complex series entitled Os treze Prétlonista (the Thirteen Pretlönists), in wihch the painting is cold, austere and charged with an extraordinary chromatic vibration. Starting a new phase in 2001, this promising artist set out to re-learn the processes of pictorial expression, re-utilising her capacity for figuration and exploring the possibilities of volume. Maria Teresa's admirable painting of human form celebrates explosive and somewhat paradoxical carnality, combined with an ever present subtlety of gesture and nudity.“

José Berardo, from the Preamble to the catalogue A Mãe das Mães, 2008.

 The Berardo Collection

 when men are fragile

"Metamorphosis" is the portrait of my friend and fellow artist Brian John Parker. Brian posed for me.

However...

„ The adult male figure is partially omitted in Maria Teresa's works, and if any allusion to it can be discerned other thanin blurry backgrounds, this is due to the appearance of pregnant women and in rare cases of children.”

Dr. Rui Carita,  from the catalogue A Mãe das Mães, 2008

dance with me