Inês Cannas was born in Lisbon in 1967, where she lives and works.

Education

  • Complete and Advanced Course in Fine Arts, Ar.Co – Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual

  • Degree in Interior and General Equipment Design, IADE – Instituto de Artes Visuais

  • Decorative Painting, IAO – Instituto de Artes e Ofícios

  • Painting and Drawing, SNBA – Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes

  • Photography, IADE – Instituto de Artes Visuais

  • Printmaking, Atelier Contra Prova / Ar.Co

  • Sculpture, studio practice with Tiago Bettencourt | workshops with Israel Kislansky

Collections

  • CAM/JAP, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon

  • Fundação ALTICE, Lisbon

  • CAE, Figueira da Foz, Portugal

  • CAC, Málaga, Spain

  • Fundação Benetton, Italy

  • Fundação Luso-Espanhola, Madrid, Spain

  • UNICAJA, Málaga, Spain

  • Art Collection, Município de Sintra, Portugal

  • Art Collection, Tapeçarias de Portalegre

For enquiries and further information about works and projects, please contact the artist.

MY work

The creation of images is a form of writing, a way of engaging and extending communication with everything that surrounds us.

My work is thus a form of writing that corrects itself, grows and transforms itself, giving rise to new artistic processes, new ways of making that emerge along the way — a liberation from the original process through the birth of other forms of expression, other languages.

Systematic repetition is not redundancy here, but a method: a path of investigation into pictorial languages, through which the same idea is translated into different visual forms, like a thought passing through several languages without ever ceasing to be the same thought.

I do not seek to reproduce or copy the reality that surrounds me, but rather, by using it, to approach the essence of things and their defining characteristics, without concern for detail.

My work seeks a profound connection with nature, which in its very essence is synonymous with freedom — the bodily and inner freedom of everything that is born from the earth and grows towards the sky, spreading freely and in harmony with its surroundings, in a true symbiosis. The earth, the fertile matter from which seeds and spores germinate, nourishes the ecosystem in a cyclical dance that makes the entire planet pulse: nature is earth, water, living beings, air and sky — the elements that, since ancient cosmogonies, have sustained the idea of a world in relationship.

The work is a boundless extension of the body, the mind and the hand.

My body is my way of accessing the world.

In matter, and in the act of handling it, lies the challenge of sharing — like a dance, accompanied by a question: how far can we go, both adapting to the rules of coexistence, attempting to overcome the impossible in pursuit of the freedom that matter offers.

And it is along this path that I find the serene silence of the way towards my freedom.

Solo / Group Exhibitions | 1997–2025

2025
Small Formats Group Exhibition, ESPAÇO D’ALTE, Lisbon; “NONCHALANT”, Galeria Sá da Costa, Lisbon; 3rd Edition Group Ceramics Exhibition, Almada; “Prémio Tapeçaria de Portalegre: a Tapeçaria de Portalegre como Expressão de Arte Contemporânea” Competition Exhibition, Museu da Tapeçaria de Portalegre – Guy Fino, Portalegre; “Prata, Pedra e Percursos Plásticos”, duo exhibition with Ana Gama, Espaço Atelier Inês Cannas, Lisbon.

2024
“TERRITÓRIOS IMAGINÁRIOS: Entre o concreto e o abstrato”, ESPAI CENIT, Barcelona, Spain; Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon; “Empty Spaces. What Are We Living For?” (solo), Espaço Atelier Inês Cannas, Lisbon.

2023
“Natureza como lugar” (solo), CAT – Casa das Artes de Tavira, Algarve; “In Between” (solo), Galeria São Sebastião, Portalegre; “Between the Lights” (solo), UM.SA – Museu das Artes de Sintra, Sintra; Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon.

2022
“Somos Instantes”, Biblioteca Camões, Lisbon; 42nd Miniprint International of Cadaqués, Taller Galeria Fort, Cadaqués, Spain; International Mini Print, Gallery Wingfield Barns, Wingfield, Suffolk, UK; International Contemporary Mini Print of Kazanlak, Bulgaria; “Vanitas” (solo), Capela de Santo António, Portel; Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon.

2021
Video, Coleção de Arte Contemporânea da Fundação Altice Portugal; 41st Miniprint International of Cadaqués, Taller Galeria Fort, Cadaqués, Spain; International Mini Print, Gallery Wingfield Barns, Wingfield, Suffolk, UK; “Small Formats”, Christmas Group Exhibition, Galeria Monumental, Lisbon; International Mini Print, Galerie L’Etang d’Art, Bages, France; The International Contemporary Miniprint of Kazanlak, Bulgaria; Video, MNAC – Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea; Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon.

2020
Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon; “Landscapes” (solo), CNC – Centro Nacional de Cultura, Lisbon.

2019
“Curator for a Day”, virtual exhibition, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; exhibition of the Coleção de Arte Contemporânea da Fundação Altice Portugal, Taguspark, Oeiras; Christmas Group Exhibition, Galeria Monumental, Lisbon; Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon; “Corpo e Paisagem”, travelling exhibition through the collections of Museu Gulbenkian, Espaço Miguel Torga, Sabrosa; “Corpo e Paisagem”, travelling exhibition through the collections of Museu Gulbenkian, Centro de Cultura Contemporânea de Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco.

2018
“Corpo e Paisagem”, travelling exhibition through the collections of Museu Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Contemporânea Graça Morais, Bragança; Ar.Co Summer Exhibition, Quinta de São Miguel, Almada; Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon; Christmas Group Exhibition, Galeria Monumental, Lisbon.

2017
Exhibition of the Coleção de Arte Contemporânea da Fundação PT, Casa da Cultura, Vieira do Minho; Internationale KUNST HEUTE 2017 (Art Book); “Paisagem na SNBA”, exhibition celebrating seven years of Castelo D’If, Lisbon; Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon; “IMAGO MUNDI – Mediterranean Routes”, Luciano Benetton Collection, Cantieri Culturali Alla Zisa – Spazio Zac – Zona Arti Contemporanee, Palermo, Italy.

2016
NMS Museu do Sal, Figueira da Foz (solo); CAC – PERIPLOS ARTE PORTUGUÉS DE HOY, Málaga, Spain; CAE – Centro de Artes e Espetáculos da Figueira da Foz (solo); Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon.

2015
Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon.

2014
Fundação Portugal Telecom, Lisbon (solo); “The Other Side of the Soul” – Photography, Art Gallery The Black Shepp, Lisbon (solo); Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon.

2013
Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon.

2012
Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon.

2011
Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon; Atelier 23, Lisbon (solo).

2010
Castelo D’If – Lisboa Open Studios 10AAA, Lisbon.

2007
Galeria Arte Periférica, Lisbon (solo).

2005
“PINTURA”, Galeria Vértice, Lisbon (solo).

2004
Loja do Lopes, by Isabel Vaz Lopes, Lisbon.

2002
“PINTURA”, Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon (solo); ARCO, Pedro Cera stand, Madrid, Spain; Foro Sur – Feria Iberoamericana de Arte Contemporáneo, Pedro Cera stand, Cáceres, Spain; Hotel y Arte, Galeria Pedro Cera, Seville, Spain; Group Exhibition, Galeria Maria Llanof, Cáceres, Spain; FAC – Feira de Arte Contemporânea, Pedro Cera stand, Lisbon.

2001
ARCO Madrid, Pedro Cera stand, Madrid, Spain; FAC – Feira de Arte Contemporânea, Pedro Cera stand, Lisbon; Hotel y Arte, Galeria Pedro Cera, Seville, Spain.

2000
“PINTURA”, Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon (solo); AR.CO Finalists Exhibition, Cordoaria, Lisbon; FAC – Feira de Arte Contemporânea, Pedro Cera stand, Lisbon; Art Forum Berlin, Galeria Pedro Cera stand, Berlin, Germany; Accrochage, Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon.

1999
AR.CO Spring Group Exhibition, Quinta de São Miguel, Almada; Group Exhibition for Timor, Armazém 7, Lisbon; IV Foro Atlântico de Arte Contemporânea, Pedro Cera stand, Pontevedra, Spain.

1998
AR.CO Spring Group Exhibition, Quinta de São Miguel, Almada.

1997
AR.CO Spring Group Exhibition, Quinta de São Miguel, Almada.