After studying architecture across the globe, and working for a couple of years in London, her passion for art, aesthetics, and craftsmanship, and her urge to create at a faster pace led Inês de Almeida e Paiva to put architectural practice on hold to found Fresca Studio in late 2020.
Although art has always been a part of her life, it has only been over the last couple of years that Inês has seen herself growing an interest and exploring art and art history. She holds a Master of Architecture from the Lisbon School of Architecture (University of Lisbon, Portugal), and her interest in exploring the world led her to take part in two exchange programs with merit scholarships. She spent one term at Dalhousie University in Canada and almost a year developing her thesis at The University of Tokyo in Japan.
Her connection with printmaking was one of exploration and discovery. With an urge to create at a faster pace, Inês returned from London at the beginning of the pandemic, where she had been working for some of the top architectural practices. She turned to linocut, and has since been developing a strong identity and style that allows her to combine her passion for art and architecture in a single project. Fresca meaning ‘fresh’, ‘cool’, and ‘recently made’ or ‘energetic’, was the perfect name for the project.
Fresca Studio is a Lisbon-based art studio working on relief prints using linocut, inspired by shapes of architecture, design, and nature. These inspirations mostly come from modernist, brutalist, and metabolist architecture; movements that allow her to create compositions with striking and repetitive or modular shapes. Working in series, Inês feels she can explore each theme even deeper. Thus, each relief print is part of a collection. All of her original works are part of limited editions, handmade and individually inked and pressed by a single pair of hands. As a result of this printmaking technique, each print is unique, with a style that is defined by graphic abstraction and strong geometric shapes. Inês’ works are minimalist yet bold, with a distinct structure. The monochrome look and the use of the negative space are features that do not go unnoticed.
Currently based in her hometown Carcavelos, just outside of Lisbon, by the coast, Inês is printing in a small studio space that she shares with one of her sisters, who is a designer and ceramist. Fresca Studio intends to establish as a Portuguese artistic project, which stands out for the uniqueness and exclusivity of the works and for the attention to detail, while aiming to share the amazing qualities of traditional printmaking techniques in contemporary art. The project has a social conscience side to it, with a small percentage of profits on prints reverting to a charity or a cause the artist stands up for.
“As an architect, I truly believe in the importance of art as a way to craft one’s spaces and make them unique, and I also know how significant it is that each piece is made by one pair of hands. I really hope you like these prints as much as I enjoyed making them.”
Her latest series of works, Cápsula, is inspired by the shapes and shadows of the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo. It is one of Inês’ favourite buildings, and one she was able to visit during the time she lived in Tokyo where she was conducting research for her master’s thesis.
This building, designed by Kisho Kurokawa and completed in 1972, is one of the few buildings of the metabolism movement to leave its mark in the world, and it was a major reference during her research work there. The modular volumes, the gloomy atmosphere of the building, the peace of the surroundings, the light and shadow, the feeling of it being somewhat outdated yet futuristic; all of its character drew Inês back to its shapes some years later, as she developed this new set of compositions.
“To be able to share these memories of a country that has stolen my heart, where I felt really free and safe, is a dream come true – and hopefully this will pass on to you through these works.”
Inês wants to keep learning, to explore other traditional printmaking techniques, and to work on the awareness, preservation and innovation of these techniques in contemporaneity.
www.fresca-studio.com
@fresca_studio
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