TRAJECTORIES#7: Ana Albuquerque

I'm not exactly sure why… Maybe because of the scale, or for feeling it in my body, maybe for the constant closeness and intimacy, or because it is a short dialogue, maybe for the overflow of everyday life. This communication, which allows me to find knowledge about something that can't be described with words, where the verb is a palpable material, has accompanied me for as long as I can remember. As a small child, I used to sleep with a handkerchief pressed against my face. Now I almost always use gold in the jewels I design, and perhaps this is what is mostly constant since I began working. Focusing on this material demands effort, a real need to accomplish and an urgency that imposes itself over other needs. The metal of the sun, of the eternal, of resistance, of pure relationship with the skin, of what is, in itself, a statement. Maybe it is in this oscillation between that thin cloth, almost falling apart, and the hard, heavy, cold temperature of the metal, that I find the becoming and the purpose of the jewel.
/ Ana Albuquerque, April 2025

When: Saturday 14th March from 16 to 17 h.

About Ana Albuquerque
Ana Albuquerque (b.1964, in Lisbon) graduated in Sculpture – Fine Arts in 1994 at F.B.A.L (School of Fine Arts) in Lisbon. In 1986, she attended a Graduate Course in Furniture at the Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva Foundation, and attended two Jewellery Degrees at the AR.CO, Centre of Arts & Visual Communication and at the Contacto Directo School, Lisbon between 1989 and 1982 1993/94 Theology at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon. Following these studies, she practised in 1992 at the jewellery workshop at Nunes & Garrido. From further participation in sculpture, jewellery and tapestry workshops, she made her higher education experience a rich and plural one, which soon and on a regular basis, led her to cooperate with several clients and firms in the production of a wide variety of prototypes, artefacts and contemporary jewellery pieces. Since 1993, Gonçalo Villa de Freitas has had the photo credits.

In 2003, she founded with Valentina Garcia her own brand named meet. Since 2007, Ana Albuquerque has been the vice president of PIN – Portuguese Association of Contemporary Jewellery. She has occasionally published reflective texts in Umbigo Magazine and consistently writes about the work she develops, seeking to express the concerns that drive her. She currently lives in Lisbon, working as a drawing teacher while remaining involved in contemporary jewellery objects and projects, both as an artist and as a teacher.