Joana Simaes
Degree: BA Fine Art
University: Middlesex University
Graduation Year: 2023
New Blood Art Commentary
NEW BLOOD ART EMERGING ART PRIZE NOMINEE
Joana Simaes is an oil painter completing her final year of Fine Art at Middlesex University. Drawing inspiration from the classical techniques of Goya and Michael Borremans, Simaes’s figurative paintings feature muted colours and limited shading. Her work centres around Freud’s concept of the uncanny, with the desire to unsettle the viewer. This sense of uncomfortable familiarity is intensified by Simaes’ habit of painting people she knows, creating an intimate connection between her and her paintings.
Dr. Alexandra M. Kokoli, Programme Leader, BA Fine Art Associate Professor in Visual Culture at Middlesex University:
'Joana Simaes's paintings of her family and friends are classically uncanny: they reveal the innermost as irrevocably strange and resisting domestication, even (or especially) when confined to domestic interiors.'
Artist Statement
The core of my work goes from classically executed figurative oil paintings to more graphic paintings with the use of flat colours and less shading, onto hard surfaces in various sizes. I explore largely Goya and Michael Borremans’s classical painting techniques and subject matter in relation to depicting Freud’s concept of the uncanny, attempting to confront the viewers and making them feel uncomfortable and uneasy. I tend to only paint people I know, which creates a certain feeling of intimacy between me and my paintings.
Group Exhibitions
(2023) Within the Zeitgeist, Nunnery Gallery, Bow Road
(2022) Gaining Momentum, Islington Arts Factory, Islington