MARIA 16 is an art studio hosting multidisciplinary artists, creatives and craftsmen from all over the world to create, exchange and explore here in the heart of Lisbon.
It is a holistic and inclusive environment that facilitates its members to grow and expand individually and collectively.
RESIDENTS:
APEWOOD
Apewood, founded in 2016 by João Maria Bernardino, a designer from Lisbon, who has always expressed an interest in creating furniture, with an initial focus on wood, seeks to keep the artisan spirit alive, using the past and present as pillars for the future. Finding the lines of the aesthetics of modern furniture are the focus of Apewood, creating pieces that seek to be modern, raw and brutal yet elegant and clean. Working mainly with hand tools and the chainsaw, creating this way patterns and textures in his pieces. These are characterized by the ability to adapt to the wood's natural “flaws” taking into account the raw material, technique and versatility as relevant factors, always resulting in unique pieces by the author. Here, preference is given to local raw materials, such as wood, metal, stone and whatever he can get his hands on. Thus, new concepts and projects arise from this constant search, that also leads to the constant growth of the creator. You will also find tables made by Apewood at Galeria Tapecarias de Portalegre
TIAGO MOURA DESIGN
Tiago Moura is a designer and woodworker from Lisbon, Portugal. Passionate about geometry, adventure and nature, his work reflects attention to detail and easy shaped structures. He will be displaying some new chairs and benches for this edition of Lisbon design week at Maria16.
KRUS
Sofia Cruz (KRUS), Lisbon 1989, studied product design at Lusófona University. She quickly developed a very strong authorial aspect in her work. As such, her pieces test the boundary between design and the visual arts. A cosmos that exists to be lived.
Applying painting to different materials and surfaces, the color is the way to transmit sensations to the people and suggest new environments.
SEBASTIÃO LOBO
Sebastião Lobo, born in 1993, is a rising jeweler and concept artist working in Lisbon. After graduating from the António Arroio art school, Sebastião soon opened his first jewelry studio, an already vast artistic journey which evolved into finer arts like sculpture, plastic arts and scenography. He has collaborated with Astolfi Studio in the highly coveted Hermés' shop window and the décor for the Pau Brasil concept shop and has conceived a shop window display for Mercedes-Benz, showing an oeuvre always open to dialogue. The almost taxonomic sculpture work using iron wire, where animals appear to be shadows or sketches, or the jewelry work, where animals appear in an elegant simplicity, are proof of the infinite approaches he can take on a single theme. Sebastião Lobo also made a whale and jellyfish using plastic bottles in a work commissioned by the Oceano Azul foundation and a fiberglass shark Skeleton for the +351 shop further proving that, in his artistic practice, nothing is impossible.
This openness, mixed with the rigor of the artist's vision, allow Sebastião's work to be presented in award winning jewelry shows, individual shows at independent plastic arts galleries as well as projects for well reputed institutions: he created two sculptures and
designed the trophy for Deloitte's award shows, made the design and scenography for Ginásio Clube Português' annual show, designed utilitarian and decorative pieces for Plano restaurant and the IVENS Hotel in Lisbon, created a sculpture in the middle of a beach for Yamba, in Costa da Caparica, created a sophisticated reinvented menorah created for the website L'Objet among many other institutional works.
With a fully developed artistic direction and aesthetic vision, Sebastião Lobo's work makes use of his refined techniques to create well thought out moods and works of art that can serve purely aesthetic purposes or get involved in cooperative works of big dimensions.
CAMILO NUNEZ
Camilo Nuñez, known as 'THEIC,' is a Uruguayan artist currently based in Lisbon, Portugal. Working as a professional artist since 2008, he explores diverse mediums, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and textile design. Co-founding Colectivo Licuado in 2010 with fellow Uruguayan artist Florencia Durán, they specialize in large-scale figurative murals for public spaces, engaging in international projects and festivals over the last ten years. In his solo work, Camilo centers the human figure, drawing inspiration from ancient Greek mythology and classical paintings and sculpture. His creations intricately weave color, light, and form, transforming the conventional portrait into a contemporary expression that resonates with modern visual language. Emphasizing his South American identity, Camilo asserts the freedom of artistic creation historically denied to artists like him in the Western art historical canon. This reframing of the artistic autonomy of the global South, which to a certain extent appropriates European art history without compressing its own position, forms an important narrative thread in his artistic output.
KYLIE MARIE
Kylie Marie was born in South Africa, has been living in Portugal for many years, and is based in Lisbon. She is a creative woodworker who explores not only wood but also other materials. Passionate about woodturning, round shapes, and geometry, she has been exploring other forms and will present a variety of pieces.
RICHAD
Richad Ismael Selemane is a multidisciplinary artist from Grândola, currently based in Lisbon. Originally with a background in science, he then progressively morphed his way into the creative & art fields. Richad has a broad spectrum of interests, such as film photography, fashion, cinema and painting. Lately, he’s been developing a deeper interest and practical knowledge in woodworking, chair design and analogue filmmaking.
SIMON MORDA-COTEL
Born in 1992, Simon Morda-Cotel (aka WOSE) is a French painter and muralist. Fascinated by typography, architecture and urban culture, he began spray-painting his first lettering in industrial spaces. The essence of these abandoned places led him to build his own world made of lines, planes and perspectives. After graduating from fine arts school, he has traveled and exhibited his work in France and abroad, notably in Shanghai, Berlin, Marseille and Barcelona. His work reveals a profound sense of harmony, oscillating between figuration and abstraction. His compositions invites us to lose ourselves in details, textures and transparencies.
Images courtesy of the artists
