ABOUT
Natalia Rodrigues is a Portuguese artist, musician and educator. She was born and raised in Porto, where she graduated in Fine Art. It was only later that she would understand how growing up in Portugal would be such an intrinsic part of her art work. That feeling of nostalgia, of ‘saudade’, of the fado and of the poetry of Fernando Pessoa and Florbela Espanca, as well as the discrepancies between old and new, man and nature, have remained central in her work.
During the course of her University studies she took part in an Erasmus exchange, where she studied photography in L’école 75 in Brussels. It was through this opportunity that she first was introduced to socially engaged practices of photography, and had a glimpse at how cultural identities can affect technical approaches for more effective outcomes. It was also through the time spent in the school lab, observing other students’ work, and the discussions with colleagues and professors, that she first understood how light can have a dramatic effect in changing perception.
In Brussels she met her partner Edward Stacchini, with whom she has been collaborating ever since in photographic and performative work. Together they have started the indie music duo Lost Michi.
Since finishing her studies she has lived and worked in Porto, Brussels and Dublin, and is currently based in the southwest of France, between Toulouse and the Pyrenees. Through the time spent in these countries she has come to appreciate the power of language and communication.
Alongside her artistic practice she briefly worked as an interpreter and was assigned to a refugee legal clinic and some police interrogation work. These experiences marked the way she understood the act of listening and interpreting, and the flawed qualities that spoken language reveals at times.
Since moving to France she has become an art teacher at Château de Sauveterre, work that brings together her love for art and languages. She believes that, as an artist, one of the most important tasks is to facilitate the development of creative thinking and, through the work with children, promote individual growth and independent thought.
It was through this contact with children, with their vision of the world and their freedom of expression that she became interested in illustration.
She is currently undertaking a Masters degree in Illustration at Hertfordshire University.
She has been exhibiting regularly with Aveiro Experimental Art Circle since 2013.
In 2018 she has had the opportunity to also collaborate with the XX element project in their exhibition “Doze apostolas”, Quadrado Azul Galery, Vasco Aguiar’s book “Os dias em que eu cresci”, and to lend her voice to Pedro Marques’ song in Alice Guimaraes and Monica Santos’ short film “Entre sombras”.