Maria Teresa Crawford Cabral
“I pack my suitcase and take... Since 2018 I have been working on a cycle of paintings that picks up the current Diaspora of displaced peoples. Based on the idea of departure, this cycle bears the title I pack my suitcase and take... The title of each individual picture fills this gap: I pack my suitcase and take... the dignity... nothing but ruins... the silence, etc. with me. This cycle currently consists of 13 large-format oil paintings, 150 cm x 125 cm. The technique is experimental and combines complex abstract backgrounds with a very precise figurative painting based on the art of drawing. The atmosphere is poetic and nebulous. The common denominator is walking and the burden. When exhibited side by side, the pictures look like a march.”
Maria Teresa Crawford Cabral was born in Lisbon in 1959 and grew up in Angola. She returned with her parents to Lisbon in 1975.
In Lisbon, she completed her high school studies and enrolled in Philosophy at the University of Lisbon. At the same time, she enrolled at the ArCo art school, majoring in Art and tutored by the painter João Hogan. In 1984 she graduated in Philosophy.
As a child, Crawford Cabral decided to become a painter, drawing and painting at the side of her grandmother, surrounded by pieces by Portuguese artists from the artistic "milieu" of her grandparents: the brothers Franco, Almada Negreiros, Amadeu de Sousa Cardoso, etc.
The route was winding and not direct. A new change of Country and Language took place in 1984 and she moved to Germany where she raised a family. In Germany she started new studies, this time in graphic design and visual communication at the University of Applied Sciences, FH Dortmund. After finishing in 2001, she gave herself completely to artistic activity.
