Natercia
Caneira was born August 9, 1972, in Sintra, a touristic town outside Lisbon.
Her family owned a slaughterhouse where she started working when she was
fourteen years old. Racked with anxiety throughout most of her days, Natercia committed
to making art as an escape from her rough reality. In her pursuit to create a different
life for herself, when she turned eighteen,
she enrolled in the Ar.Co school of visual arts. An established edgy art school
in Lisbon, credited for an open ended and interdisciplinarity program, tourn
out to be the right incubator to nourish Natercia’s growing interest in multidisciplinary
projects.
Throughout the 90s, Natercia dedicated her
attention to Bioart developing research into creative processes based on the
sensorial and interpretative behaviour of human beings. She dedicated herself
to the study of behavioural and cognitive neuroscience and focused on the role
of the olfactory sense in the interpretation of an artwork. Following these studies, she carried out a
series of works on the anatomy and physiology of the human brain in which she
explored the interrelationships that contribute to our collective sense of an abstract
thought.
Her pioneering use of unconventional materials such
as embalmed brains, blood bags, syringes, pipettes, test tubes, microscope
slides, cultures of simple organisms, odours, and fruits in combination with
latex, fiberglass, starch bioplastic, rope Kapok threads and copper wires are
combined to create eclectic art installations.
In 2001 Natercia Caneira obtained her BFA from
Ar.Co with a specialization in sculpture. That same year, her work was included
in a group exhibition at the MAC/CCB Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Lisboa. In
this exhibition she presented one of her first large-scale sculptures. This
piece gave rise to a series of works called Liquid-Air-Solid, dedicated to the
phenomena of Physics and Philosophy, in terms of their contributions to our
collective sense of reality.
In 2003 she moved to Boston to study "Drawing
of The Urban Landscape" at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts -Tufts
University. Her contact with the monumentality
of the North American architectural and sculptural scale, as well as its
cultural plurality, directed Natercia’s attention to the symbolism of all
landscapes. Later, she attended the course “September 11 - The World Trade Centre:
Monuments as Cultural Symbols and Emblems of Power” which was concluded in 2004
in the Department of History of Art and Architecture - HES at Harvard
University, Boston
Known for her site-specific installations and interdisciplinary
work, Natercia's practice takes place within a world of precarity and enigmatic
forms. Her performative-sculptures came to play a central role in her pursuit
for the intersecting of physics and thought. At times barely present yet
powerfully charismatic, Natercia's objects highlight the fragile but lasting
effect of a movement carried out through time and space.
Prizes and competitions:
20023 ChaShaMa
Gala 2023, performance, TBA NY, Nova York, USA
2019 ChaShaMa Gala 2019, performance,
One World Trade Centre, Now York, USA
2009 Arte Mar sculpture prize, sculpture, Dom Luís I Foundation,
Cultural Centre of Cascais, Portugal
2004 Celpa Prize,
drawings, Museum Arpad Szenes / Vieira da Silva, Lisbon, Portugal
Solo Exhibitions
2023 The
Metamorphosis of the Simple Shapes / Bioart - The Intuitive Behaviour,
site-specific installation, National Museum of Natural History and Science,
Lisbon, Portugal
2020 Chromostatic
a site-specific sculpture, MSDM Studio, London, UK
2015 Systemic
Factors, Nacional Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon, Portugal
2014 Morphogenesis,
Placebo Effect and Binary Oppositions, Plataforma Revolver, Lisbon, Portugal
Systematic Observations, Flutter Space, London, UK
2010 Random, Bernardo Museum, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal
2008 Skyline
Connect, Dom Luís I Foundation, Cascais, Portugal
Détails du Maroc, Camões
Institut, Portuguese Cultural Center in Rabat, Marocco
No
Limits, Cultural Center in Odivelas, Portugal
2006 Fiber
of Light, Nacional Museum of Costumes, Lisbon, Portugal
2004 Limits
of Softness; Gallery Genovese / Sullivan, Boston, USA
1997 The
Smell, Sintra, Portugal
Collective Exhibitions
2023 ChaShaMa
Gala, F%@K THE COMFORT ZONE, performance, New York City, USA
2020 Domenest - Peace Wing over Artillery Place, collaboration with paula
roush, msdm studio, London, UK
2019 ChaShaMa
Gala, performance, One World Trade Centre, New York City, USA
2015
Identities e Circumstance, site-specific installation, Mafra Nacional Palace,
Portugal
2013 Open
House Show, site-specific installation, Art Residency Pedra Sina, Madeira
Island
2009 Arte Mar sculpture prize, Dom Luís I
Foudation, Cascais Cultural Center, Portugal
2008 Alternativa 1, site-specific Installation,
Psiquiatric Hospistal of Lisbon, Portugal
Enganar a Fome, drawings,
Espaço Avenida, Lisbon, Portugal
Sines
Local, drawings e photography, Emerico Nunes Cultural Centre, Sines, Portugal
2007 Circuit Festival, sculpture, Jardim Tropical de Belém, Lisboa,
Portugal
2004
The Line, drawings, Gallery Genovese / Sullivan, Boston, USA
Untitled, drawings, Celpa
prize, Museum Arpad Szenes / Vieira da Silva, Lisboa, Portugal
D/1 Drawings, Gallery Pelourinho, Art Festival in Obidos,
Portugal
website: https://naterciacaneira.weebly.com/
