Sofia Mascate (*Abrantes, Portugal) lives and works in Vienna. She holds a Master's in Critical Studies from the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, a Master's in Fine Arts (with Prof. Jutta Koether) from the HFBK Hamburg, and a Bachelor's in Painting from the FBAUL. Recent solo exhibitions include “Gilded Cage” New Jörg, Vienna; “Hypertext” Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon; “Pick Me”, BPA Space, Cologne. Her book of essays on still life painting, “Tactical Retraction”, was edited and published in 2022 by Materialverlag–HFBK.
Sofia Mascate was the selected artist for the UmbigoLAB x ArtWorks – No Entulho residency. Her project continues a line of research that began in 2019 during her master’s degree in Hamburg, centered on the work of Josefa de Óbidos. This research investigates the biases and stereotypes historically associated with the role of women in art history.
During the residency, Sofia aimed to overcome certain limitations in her studio-based practice—particularly the desire to work with glass painting on a larger and more complex scale. “This proposal came at a time when I was confronting the limits of my studio practice. I had started painting on glass and wanted to scale up and develop more complex pieces, but I didn’t have the resources to do it on my own,” she explains.
Throughout the residency, her work became integrated into the collaborative environment of the factory—markedly different from the solitary and intuitive nature of painting in the studio. “The factory offers its workshops and team to support the project, from technical drawings to post-production. It’s a very different working method from mine, as a multitasking painter. Painting is a laborious process, full of unpredictability, somewhat solitary, and requires time, focus, and attention. In the factory, the production strategy is more collaborative, with premeditated and rigorous planning. It was an experience that taught me to apply other approaches and integrate different ways of thinking into my studio work.”
For the artist, glass allowed her to rethink the relationship between figure and background in a less linear way, introducing visual disruptions that brought new depth to her work: “The multiple layers give it a new vitality.”
The residency was carried out in partnership with Umbigo magazine and resulted from an open call evaluated by a jury composed of Diogo da Cruz (selected artist for the UmbigoLAB x ArtWorks 2021 residency), Filipa da Rocha Nunes, representatives from Umbigo, the Millennium BCP Foundation, and the ArtWorks team.
Credits
Format: Open call UmbigoLAB @ ArtWorks No Entulho Photography: Bruno Lança e Bernardo Bordalo Partners:RevistaUmbigo + Covipor + Otiima
