Portuguese Berlin-based artist comes to Singapore for a Solo Exhibition at Art Plural Gallery

Adriana Molder, Face Cut (from the series Mystery), 2014, ink and acrylic on canvas, 76 x 58 cm

Adriana Molder’s inverted artistic codes interrogate the viewer: a black textural background and a white flat foreground, animated portraits renew the field of drawing and lay an uncanny depth in each artwork. Born in 1975 in Lisbon, Adriana Molder has developed a unique body of work. She tells us a bit more about it in a conversation with Irene Marx.

IRENE MARX: The human face has been an all-time challenge in visual arts, the roots of portraiture are likely found in prehistoric times. What does portraiture mean to you?

ADRIANA MOLDER: As you well put it, I am challenging what faces mean to me in my work. It’s a subject of perpetual interest with a great historic tradition that I’ve found myself following. I’m not interested in abstraction although you can find many elements of abstraction in my paintings. Portraits are like mirrors that give you much more possibilities and answers than what you get by looking in your own reflection.

IM: Your technique and reduced choice of colour makes your artwork easy to identify. Different layers of ink are placed in a very precise manner, the portraits radiate an incredible, kind of dark intensity. What draws you to this mysterious darkness?

AM: I think that black in my drawings and paintings is exciting like a stage. I mean the excitement you feel when you are sitting in the dark before the play before the movie starts. The figures of my work are embedded in dark matter, in black, you never know where they are. They just exist in the dark. I’m drawn to mystery, to the so-called dark stories and to the night, the time when I work better. So the faces and people I represent are too.

IM: Please tell us more about the technique you use.

AM: For a long time I’ve been working with China ink on tracing paper. I love how the ink spreads on this fragile surface creating all tips of accidents, blotches and different densities. I’ve introduced white and red acrylic in my drawings some time ago. Finally I’ve move into canvas and very thick watercolour papers as you will see in the Light in the Heart exhibition. I still work on the floor and I don’t do any preparatory sketches for my works.

Exhibition: Adriana Molder: The Light in the Heart
Dates: 10 June – 10 July 2014
Venue: Art Plural Gallery, 38 Armenian Street, Singapore 179942
Hours: Monday – Saturday, 11:00am – 7:00pm
Info: www.artpluralgallery.com or email info@artpluralgallery.com