About the artist

The artist Cristina Oiticica was born in Rio de Janeiro, on November 23rd. 1951, where she has always lived. In 2003, after many trips to Europe, she decided to divide her time between the Pirineus in Southwestern France and Rio de Janeiro, where, with much inspiration has developed her work even more, with nature. Creating a partnership with nature, it doesn’t simply have direct technical interference, since her works are left in the river beds, forests, inside trees, etc… she makes the correction.

The artist tries to portray in her work,in a simple and direct way, the world, the present moment, and the society in which we live.  That was how my first exhibition emerged, work based on the visual impressions of my pilgrimage along the Path to Santiago de Compostela, in July/August 1990. In mounting the show, at Casa de España, in Rio, I tried to arrange the room so that visitors not only observed the themes of the paintings, but might experience a symbolic journey along the Holy Way.
The same thing happened with the exhibition “Anjos” (Angels), in 1994, at Centro Cultural da Light, in Rio. Based on one of the most ancient archetypal forms of contact with divinity, I showed beings which fit in with those retained in the popular imagination (and, consequently, in myimagination).

In the exhibition “Joana D’Arc” (Joan of Arc), in 1996 at Casa França-Brasil, in Rio, I portrayed the woman warrior, through feminine tenderness and the tenacity of women at work. Although I explored the mythical figure of the French heroine, I also drew upon great women of our time (such as Mother Teresa of Calcutta) and the anonymous and valiant warriors of everyday life (black woman from the favela, Islamic women, Indians, Geishas, etc.) In each I placed some detail which represented the original model, part of her armor, a spear, a sword, but emphasized what really exists behind the steel and the breastplate – the feminine essence.

At the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, in 1997, my theme was a reflection of the previous show. I worked with details of women’s bodies (aging from 12 to 90), captured during small moments of everyday life, such as a hand praying with beads, the foot of a ballet dancer as she puts on her slippers, a bust reflected in the mirror…, small gestures which represent great gestures and help us to face the good fight every day.

During this phase in my work I dived into the figurative world and moved towards monochrome. Although I had always used much color in my work, I thought that this time, the human body portrayed on a canvas, so suavely,should be completed by the eye of the viewer, which wouldn’t just complement the figure, but also stamp on it the color in his or her soul.

In my next works, which were shown at Galeria Portal, in São Paulo, in 1998, and in 1999 at the gallery of Centro Cultural Cândido Mendes, I deliberately sought to innovate, and even take risks. Still using the female body as my theme, I submitted my drawings to the technology of computers in order to reinvent textures, dissolve images, bend and distort objects; I mixed breasts and pearls and recreated a third form…blended and unified. Using the images I obtained, I developed works on canvas, showing that the female body, the beautiful and the sacred can have the same form.

I currently see art as a path for research, one of the roads leading to the discovery of truth and beauty. I also perceive that beauty is not only to be found in the fine brushstroke of the artist, it is present in the various languages which translate art. The installations which today fill my work, reveal in the symbol of the object as art, the beauty of feminine divinity in all its facets – sexuality, fecundity, maternity and life.