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Color Friction: Materiality, Perception, Ambiguity
Ana Cardoso
SCHEDULE

October 2025

Tuesday

17:00–20:00

DURATION

18 hours | 6 sessions

LOCAL

School of Arts – Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa (Campo de Ourique)

This theoretical-practical course proposes a three-dimensional approach to the study of color, articulating an experimental methodology inspired by Josef Albers and critical, cultural, poetic, and historical reflections based on the reading of recent texts by Fred Moten and Amy Sillman. Inspired by Albers' method — putting practice before theory — and his teachings at Black Mountain College in the 1930s and 1940s, in the first sessions we will focus on chromatic exercises of Interaction of Color by Albers, challenging conventional notions about color. 

Experiences of color and form will be developed through urban wanderings (Campo de Ourique, Tapada das Necessidades, or Jardim da Estrela)—where found materials will serve as a starting point for visual exercises. The walks promote unlearning—where the accidental and marginal are sought out, and preconceived notions are challenged, replacing them with possibilities.

The course includes a dialogue between Albers' demonstrations (relational perception of color) and the ideas of Moten and Sillman (color as an idea, culture, freedom, power, politics, poetics). The objective is to question visual perception by stimulating an active gaze.

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Main topics

– Color Relativity
– Introduction to Albers’ thought;
– Chromatic interaction exercises (illusions, transparencies, mutability);
– Urban drifts, observations, and collection of materials;
– Collective reading of excerpts from Black and Blur of Moten and On Color Sillman's;
– Material experimentation and collective analysis of experiences;
– Counterpoints — Albers × Moten × Sillman.

FEES

175,00 €

Payment conditions
One-off payment.
Payment can be made in full upon registration.

ACCESS CONDITIONS

No access conditions.

REGISTRATIONS

Number of vacancies: 15

The course will only take place with a minimum number of registered students.

Pre-registration
Ana Cardoso

Ana Cardoso (b. 1978, Lisbon) currently lives and works in Lisbon, after having lived and worked in New York between 2004 and 2020, a crucial period in the development of her work and its response to the context and history of recent painting. Her work focuses on the practice of painting in dialogue with abstraction, installation, and its activation as an object that dialogues with the body and its context.

Her solo exhibition, Leaky Abstraction, curated by João Pinharanda, MAAT — Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon, 2023, gave rise to an artist's publication, Leaky Abstraction — Four Color Edition (2024), developed in collaboration with Ana Baliza, which includes texts by the curator and the North American writers Maika Pollack and William J. Simmons. The publication was presented in conversation with Maika Pollack at CARA — Center for Art, Research and Alliances, New York (2025), and is also available at MAAT, Lisbon, and at the ZdB bookstore, Lisbon.

A selection of her exhibitions includes: Maika Pollack/Uptown Gallery, New York (2025); Tavira Museum/Gallery Palace, Tavira (2025); Nuno Centeno, Porto (2023); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2023); Cristina Guerra, Lisbon (2021); Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon (2019); Klaus Von Nichtssagend, New York (2019); Parapet Real Humans, St Louis (2018); Arpad Szenes — Vieira da Silva Museum, Lisbon (2018); MAAT, Lisbon (2017); Temnikova and Kasela, Tallinn (2017); Granpalazzo, Rome (2017); Jablonka Maruani Mercier, Knokke (2016); Rachel Uffner, New York (2015); Andrew Rafacz, Chicago (2015); MNAC — Museu do Chiado, Lisbon (2015); Múrias Centeno, Lisbon (2014); Longhouse Projects, New York (2014); Marianne Boesky, New York (2012); Maisterravalbuena, Madrid (2012); Pedro Cera, Lisbon (2012); Prague Biennale 5, Prague (2011); Simone Subal, New York (2011); Emily Harvey Foundation, New York (2010); On Stellar Rays, New York (2010); The Kitchen, New York (2009); Tracy Williams, New York (2009).

Cardoso was a finalist for the New Artists Award, EDP / MAAT Foundation, Lisbon (2017), and the Young Painters Award — Fidelidade Mundial, Culturgest, Lisbon (2007).

Her work was included in Painting Now, edited by Suzanne Hudson and published by Thames & Hudson (2015), and has appeared in critical texts in Artforum, Flash Art, Mousse, Modern Painters, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, Contemporânea, Público, Expresso, among others.

Ana Cardoso completed her Master of Arts in Painting (MFA) at Hunter College — CUNY, New York (2006), and her Bachelor of Arts in Painting at FBAUL, Lisbon (2003). She was a fellow of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York (2019-2020), a fellow of the Shandaken Projects — Paint School, New York (2018-2019), and a fellow of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Luso-American Foundation between 2004 and 2006.

His work is represented in private and institutional collections such as: Calouste Gulbenkian Museum; EDP/MAAT Foundation; CACE—State Contemporary Art Collection; Lisbon City Council Contemporary Art Center, Municipal Galleries/EGEAC; Norlinda and José de Lima Collection; Akzo Nobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam; among others.

In 2020, Ana Cardoso founded the independent space Figura Avulsa in Santa Catarina, Lisbon, where she organizes exhibitions and events. The program has established a community among local and international artists such as Rebecca Watson Horn, Max Ruf, Christine Rebet, Gonçalo Pena, Leyla Gediz, Marta Angela (Von Calhau!), Allison Knowles, João Simões, Gwenn Thomas, Charles Mayton, Ellie Ga, Nikolai Nekh, and others.