The artist Maria Capelo is the winner of the Prémio FLAD de Desenho 2022, an initiative of the Luso-American Foundation for Development, in partnership with Drawing Room Lisboa, a contemporary art fair dedicated to drawing, which takes place at Sociedade Nacional das Belas Artes in Lisbon until October 30th. Maria Capelo succeeds Pedro Tropa, and will receive a monetary prize of 20,000 euros.

Maria Capelo is a native of Lisbon and graduated in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon. The artist has participated and exhibited her works in collective and individual exhibitions since 1996. She is represented in several collections and in 2013 received a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for the realization of the Da Sombra dos Montes project under the Program “Support to the Visual Arts – Artistic Research Projects.”

“Today we celebrate the innovative and surprising work of Maria Capelo, but also that of the other finalist artists who explore in such a varied and interesting way the Drawing, one of the most important artistic forms in the collection of contemporary art of FLAD. The reach of the Prémio FLAD de Desenho 2022 demonstrates how necessary the Foundation’s commitment to supporting the arts is, and it is clear our commitment to continue on this path.” – Rita Faden, President of FLAD.

The jury, composed of António Pinto Ribeiro (cultural programmer), Mónica Alvarez-Careaga (director of Drawing Room Lisboa) and Gabriela Albergaria (artist), chose Maria Capelo unanimously, praising the artist’s innovative work.

“Maria Capelo’s work reveals a curious sense of adventure, producing images only seemingly simple from which she is able to recreate the landscape tradition in an innovative and surprising way.” – jury of the Prémio FLAD de Desenho 2022.

The winner of the 2022 edition of the award was announced this Saturday at the Drawing Room Lisboa, a fair that is once again associated with the realization of this initiative and in which it was possible to see works of the 10 finalists of this edition of the award. For Mónica Alvarez-Careaga:

“Drawing Room Lisboa is honored to be able to continue a collaboration that we started last year with FLAD, for the creation of a national award that values contemporary design in Portugal. I am particularly pleased by the quality and interest of the works that the flad award finalists present at our fair.”

Prémio FLAD de Desenho 2022 is another step on the Foundation’s path in supporting the arts, which joins a wide range of activities that are happening in Portugal and the United States of America. The choice of design as an artistic form to be promoted with this initiative is framed with the importance of drawing in the Foundation’s private collection of contemporary art.