Manuela Pimentel

Manuela Pimentel
Manuela Pimentel’s work stands out for its striking fusion of traditional Portuguese tile art with the raw, layered aesthetic of urban street posters. Drawing inspiration from post-war New Realism artists like Mimmo Rotella, Raymond Hains, and Jacques Villeglé, Pimentel collects torn posters directly from city walls and uses them either as surfaces or integral elements of her artistic compositions.

Using acrylic paint, she meticulously recreates figures and scenes from the visual language of classic tiles. By combining their characteristic blue-and-white palette, folkloric imagery, and naïve style with fragments of urban posters, textured mortar, resins, and even neon lights, Pimentel reimagines the cultural significance of the azulejo. Once a symbol of collective memory and popular decoration, it is recontextualized within the realm of contemporary global art.

Pimentel was awarded the ESAP Prize upon completing her degree in Visual Arts in 2004 and received First Prize in the Servartes Painting Award (Porto, 2007). More recently, she won the Public Vote Award at the Sovereign Portuguese Art Prize in September 2022. That same year, she illustrated a special issue of , published by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, dedicated to poet Manuel Alegre. In 2024, the National Tile Museum (Museu Nacional do Azulejo) in Lisbon will host a solo exhibition of her work.