About Liz Bicalho
Research in abstract expressionism — mixed media, tactile textures and recycled supports. A painting without the mediation of a brush, made directly with the hands.
My work in abstract expressionism investigates the vitality, curiosity and dynamism of youth as a therapeutic refuge in the face of contemporary chaos.
Through an experimental mixed-media practice, I combine the fluidity of acrylics, watercolours and aerosols with the physical density of materials such as plaster, sand and sodium bicarbonate.
My paintings manifest a fundamentally feminine energy: an accumulated force that yearns for exploration and experience, yet finds, in the very act of painting, moments of silence, anchoring and absolute peace.
From the artist
I am an abstract expressionist artist working with mixed media, using materials such as acrylic paint, watercolour, gouache, aerosol, oil and dry pastels, as well as plaster, sand and sodium bicarbonate for texture construction.
My work is full of colour — mostly vivid and saturated — but I have also been exploring pastels without losing the vitality of the paintings. Beyond the visual, I value the textures and layers of materials, as well as the choice of supports: recycled fabrics and plywood or eucatex panels collected from timber and textile factories.
Art is a breath amid chaos, rush and anxiety. It is where I can return to the tranquillity of childhood at my grandmother's farm, covered in paint from head to toe. My paintings are the clearly feminine energy accumulated inside me: the will to discover, live and experience, but also the serenity of someone who finds peace, even if just for a few moments.
Mércia — the origin
My techniques are deeply inspired by my maternal grandmother, Mércia, also a visual artist. I spent much of my childhood at her farm, painting, discovering and exploring new techniques and materials.
Today, I clearly recognise the origin of many of my references and choices when I visit my grandmother, seeing at once both the similarity and the authenticity between our works.
The body as instrument
My artistic practice rejects the brush as a mediating tool. By painting directly with the hands, I transform abstract expressionism into a phenomenological record of the body.
The act of spreading dense mixtures of plaster, sand and bicarbonate onto recycled wood supports demands a direct physical and tactile confrontation with matter — a critical response to the dematerialisation of the digital world.
Theoretical references that ground the practice
Phenomenology of Perception
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
We do not know the world through the mind alone, but through the body. The body is our means of communicating with the world.
By abolishing the brush, the artist chooses direct skin-to-matter contact. Painting becomes an extension of touch — the canvas records the pressure of fingers, the heat of the body, its physical limits.
Anti-Painting & Action Painting
Pollock · De Kooning · Duchamp
In classic abstract expressionism, the artist's gesture is central. Unconventional tools bring the practice close to Duchamp's ready-made concept applied to the painting process.
The struggle between intention, the texture of bicarbonate and sand, and the hardness of the tool creates the controlled chance and error that give the works their vitality.
Return to the Sensorimotor
Jean Piaget
In childhood, we understand the world by touching, squeezing, getting dirty, and feeling textures. Adult life tends to replace this experience with sight and intellect.
Painting with one's hands is an act of psychological resistance — a conscious and healing regression to childhood. A tactile reality check against the smooth screens of the digital world.
Coming soon — exhibition history and press coverage.
For acquisitions, partnerships, curatorship and press.