Last March, the exhibition called DayDreamer, by the visual artist Nália Agostinho, opened at the Espaço Cultural Xavier in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is her first international solo exhibition and consists of seven canvases made using the technique of acrylic on canvas. The paintings are abstract and, for the most part, depict female figures and their contact with nature and the universe.
DayDreamer is an invitation to free ourselves from the social prison, to fight and gradually win our space – Nália Agostinho
For its author, Nália Agostinho, DayDreamer illustrates a society in which women often find themselves in situations where they feel cornered and forced to follow social standards that threaten the freedom of their being at every level, having thus to resize themselves in order to meet the expectations of a predefined female social role. DayDreamer is, according to the artist, living a parallel life and a possibility of keeping the flame alive through the creation of two personalities (the real one and the dreamer) in order to cope with the various social paradigms. “It is an invitation to free ourselves from the social prison, to fight and gradually win our space, to free ourselves from the chains placed upon us and from the philosophy instilled in us.”
About the artist
Nália das Dores R. J. Agostinho is a contemporary artist, born in 1990 in Maputo. Her line of inspiration and expression is portraits, nudes and abstracts inspired by the feminine. Her love of art began in childhood, at the age of two, encouraged by her late father, a lover of the arts and music. In 2018 she decided to begin painting professionally as a mode of expression, embracing it with passion. She has already taken part in group and solo exhibitions, in Mozambique and beyond its borders.
