Kwadalayo Art

Master in Intercultural Education, she defended the thesis: Cultural Influences in the Drawings of High School Visual Art Students at the University of Huelva (Spain).

She graduated in Communication Design from the University of Algarve (Portugal), and her Bachelor of Design is from the same university.

Professor of Visual Arts with a wide experience in teaching at various levels of education from university to secondary and basic education. She taught at various educational institutions both in Portugal and abroad.

Visual Artist since 2006, year in which she created her acronym Kwadalayo, which emerged from her South African roots. In Zulu, “KWA” means “The Place” and “DALA” means “Creative”. By joining the two we obtain Kwadalayo, which means “The Creative Place”.

Active member of PAS – Peace and Art Society (International Art Association). 

She has participated in dozens of solo and collective exhibits, locally and abroad, and her art works are part of national and international private collections. Her artwork is very diverse.

She has carried out numerous creative works, with youth groups of all ages, creating diverse art works of large dimensions such as painted murals/graffiti, mosaic murals, tile panels, sculptures in various materials, installations, etc. including workshops.

The promotion of the Arts, among the youth, is an important and recurring issue for her.

Her artwork is intensely influenced by her background in Design. Subsequently, this reflects in the importance conveyed to composition and the bearing of a message which are both an essential part of her work, and in this sense, much thought is undertaken by sketching throughout the whole creative process.

Her recent work is greatly influenced by the work of the Dutch artist, M. C. Escher, which inspires her in the use of positive and negative space. Images inside images, like layers, in a non-direct approach, where the viewer can reflect and contemplate upon the message conveyed.

Aesthetically, she likes to take on a more expressive approach which can be observed through the use of lines, washes and inks. She thoroughly enjoys mixing diverse types of media and applying them on unconventional supports for the types of media in question.

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