Artist Name: Cristina Massena
Residency Dates: March – April 2025
Born: 1977
Hometown: Porto, Portugal
Lives & Works: Porto, Portugal
URL: cristinamassena.com | Instagram @cristina.massena
Gallery: Galeria Fernando Santos
Education:
2019 – MFA, Faculty of Fine Arts, the University of Lisbon
2003 – Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, Porto
Bio/Statement:
Cristina Massena lives and works in Porto, Portugal. She graduated in Architecture after studying in Porto and Mendrisio with architects such as Eduardo Souto Moura and Peter Zumthor. For over 13 years, Cristina Massena worked independently as an architect. She also collaborated with small and large-scale studios, including Architecturestudio in Paris. With a background in architecture, Cristina Massena began exploring its intersections with fine arts. In 2019, she completed a Master’s in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon. Her research led her to question the boundaries of in-between spaces where various artistic disciplines intersect. Cristina Massena works with drawing, painting, and sculpture, integrating materials and techniques beyond their traditional uses. Her work has been part of solo and group exhibitions at various galleries and museums in Portugal. The artist was a finalist for the Norberto Fernandes Prize for Art and Technology, Altice Foundation, 2024 edition.
Her recent exhibitions include: Foundation-Escape, a solo show at Fernando Santos Gallery, Porto (2024); Unfinished conversation, site-specific sculpture, Acausa (project space), Porto (2024); 30 anos depois…, a group show at Fernando Santos Gallery, Porto (2023); The understanding of the limit in Ciclo de O Desenho como Pensamento, CCA Águeda (2023); Without beginning or ending, site-specific sculpture, Menin Douro Estates, Douro (2022); Festa, Fúria, Femina, FLAD collection, O Arquipélago – Contemporary Art Center, Azores (2022); Arco, Fernando Santos Gallery, Lisbon (2022).
“I am an artist who works in drawing and sculpture. I explore the idea of place, personal territory, relationships between bodies, their geometries, proportions, and markings. The drawings and sculptures are the record, the fixation of the experiences of my life. They serve as signs of places that have been inhabited through my thoughts. The drawings search and the sculptures materialize. My thinking is deeply influenced by the discipline of architecture, by its processes, methodologies, tools, systems, rules, and a collection of interests, images, materials, textures, orders, and various elements that activate my imagination, allowing me to construct a world around the work and define a constellation of personal references.” – Cristina Massena.
