Painting, Sculpture, Visual Arts and Installation
Exhibition opening
Thursday | 14th of May | 12:30 p.m. | Art | Centro Cultural John dos Passos
Merícia Dantas
Thursday through Sunday, May 14th to 17th | 10 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. | Exhibition | Cinesol
Born in Câmara de Lobos, Merícia Dantas earned a bachelor’s degree in Drawing from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon and a master’s degree in Illustration and Animation from the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave.
Her artistic practice reflects a deep connection to the island landscape and a particular focus on the banality of everyday life and its disconcerting aspects. It is through the elements that make up this routine that the artist presents her work, frequently exhibiting it in regional and national contexts.
Anil da Terra: Raízes
“Anil da Terra: Raízes” emerges as an extension of the “Anil da Terra” project, developed during an artist residency at Galeria Impulso, and is now presented in a more exploratory format, revealing the intimate and process-oriented nature of the work. The exhibition showcases sketches, graphic inventions, and the elements that form the foundation of the project, highlighting drawing as a space for research and experimentation.
The proposal engages directly with the tradition of Madeira Embroidery, reinterpreting the preparatory stages of the process (drawing, pricking, and stamping) as a contemporary artistic language. At the same time, Madeira’s endemic flora emerges as natural heritage and a source of inspiration, giving shape to a body of work guided by repetition, variation, and observation. The indigo blue stain takes center stage, oscillating between control and unpredictability, revealing the delicacy and imperfection inherent in manual craftsmanship. The exhibition thus stands as a tribute to the region’s intangible and natural heritage, inviting the public to revisit the preparatory gesture as a space for creation and invention.
Sara Rodrigues
Thursday through Sunday, May 14th to 17th | 10 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. | Exhibition | Capela de São Sebastião
A native of Madeira, Sara Rodrigues draws inspiration for her artistic work from a deep connection to the natural environment that surrounds her. She studied Fine Arts at the School of Arts and Design in Caldas da Rainha, an experience that helped shape her visual language.
Upon returning to Madeira, she continued her artistic practice, exploring different forms of expression such as drawing, sculpture, and painting. Her work is rooted in a careful and sensitive observation of nature, focusing on what reveals itself in subtle and almost imperceptible ways. Through her works, she seeks to give form to the recondite – things that escape the immediate gaze – inviting the viewer to a more sustained and introspective contemplation.
Da Cor do Osso
Sara Rodrigues offers a poetic and sensory reflection on memory, wear and tear, and the passage of time. The exhibition emerges as a metaphor for silence and permanency: a “weary White”, crossed by stories, marks, and traces. The project evokes images of ancient walls, forgotten objects, and hands that carry entire lives, in an artistic exercise where the material itself becomes a testimony.
Through sculptures, drawings, and paintings, the artist translates the tension between pain, time, and transformation into a journey where absence and remains take center stage. More than an exhibition, it is an invitation to introspection, where silence transforms into visual language.
Samuel Santos
Thursday through Sunday, May 14th to 17th | 10 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. | Exhibition | Centro Cultural John Dos Passos
Samuel Santos was born in Santa Maria da Feira, Aveiro, and is a figurative painter who has lived in Madeira Island since 2019. Throughout his artistic career, he has participated in both solo and group exhibitions and projects, both nationally and internationally.
Tábula Rasa
Samuel’s artistic practice is deeply marked by an intimate relationship with memory and childhood, exploring a personal nostalgia that manifests itself in his works in subtle or explicit ways. The visual universe he constructs is permeated by a reflection on the very nature of memory: “imperfect, fragmented, and inevitably shaped by loss”, giving rise to works of great emotional intensity that nonetheless avoid sentimentality.
Drawing on references from the classical canon, Samuel Santos develops a process that approaches an almost archaeological analysis, or ‘autopsy’ of the image and experience. The influences of the tragic and decadent narratives associated with the Belle Époque permeate his contemporary vision, in a body of work that summons the past as a warning and as a mirror of the present. “Tábula Rasa” thus presents itself as an invitation to reflection, where memory is also a form of resistance.
Rui Soares
Thursday through Sunday, May 14th to 17th | 10 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. | Mural | Fundação João Pereira
Rui Soares was born in 1958 in Ribeira Brava. From an early age, he showed an interest in the visual arts, devoting himself primarily to painting and drawing. Studied Visual Arts: Painting, at Instituto Superior de Arte e Design da Universidade da Madeira, an education that solidified his artistic career.
Throughout his trajectory, the artist has been involved in a number of artistic and cultural projects in Madeira. He is notably active as a promoter of drawing and painting groups, including Urban Sketchers Portugal – Madeira and the Walking Gallery Madeira.
“A cultura da banana e da cana sacarina”
The João Pereira Foundation will serve as the canvas for Rui Soares, who will bring public art to the Aqui Acolá Festival 2026, paying tribute to all those who, over the decades, have contributed to the development of these agricultural activities of enormous importance to the island’s economy and, in particular, to the municipality of Ponta do Sol. Workers, landowners, business owners, and entities linked to the sector are commemorated in a work that aims to honor the collective memory and productive heritage of the region.
Vanda Natal
Thursday through Sunday, May 14th to 17th | 10 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. | Mural | Rua da Marquesa
Born in Funchal in 1976, Vanda de Jesus Natal is a visual artist who earned a degree in Fine Arts from ISAD / University of Madeira (1999). Throughout her career, she has focused primarily on painting, participating in various group and solo exhibitions in Madeira, highlighting venues such as Casa das Mudas, Casa da Cultura de Santana, and galeria.a in Funchal, establishing a consistent presence in the regional art scene.
Estampagem
The artist presents the project as a contemporary intervention that engages with the visual identity of the urban space and with Madeiran tradition, reinforcing the presence of art as a transformative and participatory element.
Sílvia Jardim
Thursday through Sunday, May 14th to 17th | 10 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. | Exhibition | Capela de Santo António
A graduate of the University of Madeira, Sílvia Jardim’s career has been marked by a lifelong interest in the arts. She began her professional career at Fotocanhas and the Ponta do Sol City Council, where she explored design as a tool for communication and the development of visual identity.
She is currently enrolled in the Madeira Embroidery course at IVBAM – Instituto do Vinho, do Bordado e do Artesanato da Madeira – and does an internship at Bordal – Madeira Embroidery, developing work that blends traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design.
Latência
There are experiences that do not reveal themselves immediately. They remain in a subtle interlude between what has already happened and what is yet to emerge. “Latência” proposes an encounter with this suspended territory, where matter and time slow down, and the visible gradually approaches its own emergence. In this space, nothing imposes itself abruptly – everything manifests itself discreetly, almost imperceptibly.
Between painting and installation, the exhibition unfolds as a gesture in progress, an image that is still learning to exist. The visitor is invited to inhabit this intermediate time, where what is essential may not be what is seen at first glance, but rather what persists, silently, before being fully recognized.
Paola Gomes
Thursday through Sunday, May 14th to 17th | 10 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. | Exhibition | Capela de Santo António
Paola Gomes - Open Call winner
Paola Gomes, the grand winner of the Open Call, is a visual artist and cultural manager with a bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts and a master’s degree in Cultural Management from the University of Madeira. Her work reveals a deep interest in color and visual reconstruction, focusing on the interweaving of narratives and abstract forms.
She served as curatorial director of Galeria Impulso during the 2024/2025 artistic season and was involved in exhibitions and projects such as “50 Edições de Livralhada,” part of the Funchal Book Fair, and “Uníssono 4,” as part of the Echo Madeira Nature Fest.
Vazios Desviados
Her proposal for Aqui Acolá, titled “Vazios desviados,” takes the form of an installation conceived for a space with strong symbolic significance: a chapel where the architecture imposes an apparently neutral order, marked by geometry, repetition, and restraint.
The work stems from the idea that there is an invisible order that disciplines the body’s experience within the space, creating a stability that is, in fact, a suspension. It is in this interval that the possibility of deviation arises, not to disrupt, but to reveal what remains hidden.
The installation introduces precise deviations, subtle flaws in alignment, and forms that reject perfection. Instead of disrupting the existing order, it infiltrates it and makes visible what was previously invisible. The space ceases to be neutral and becomes explorable, sensitive, and almost playful, like a game among children, where the gaze lingers on imperfection and detail.
