Background
Graça Morais was born on March 17, 1948 in Vieiro, Trás-os-Montes, Portugal.
illustrator painter set designer
Graça Morais was born on March 17, 1948 in Vieiro, Trás-os-Montes, Portugal.
Graça Morais attended Vieiro Elementary School in 1955. In 1957-1958 she lived in Mozambique, but in 1959 returned to Vieiro and began to attend the college of Vila Flor.
Morais joined the Lyceum in Bragança in 1961. In the following years, she painted the scenarios for the representation of Auto da Alma, by Gil Vicente, and collaborated in the newspaper of the lyceum.
In 1966 she joined the School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto to study painting and completed the painting course in 1971, presented the 5th year assessment exhibition at ESBAP.
Graça Morais made her first trip abroad, to London, Amsterdam and Paris, in 1970. Two years later, in 1972, she lived in Guimarães, where she taught Visual Education. There, in 1974, she had her first exhibition in the Alberto Sampaio Museum.
Morais participated in the International Art Encounters of Viana do Castelo in 1975, with eight artists from Grupo Puzzle, with whom she collaborated in group exhibitions for two years.
Between 1976 and 1978, she lived in Paris and deepened the study of the work of Picasso, Matisse and Cézanne. There she also got acquainted with Bernard Rancillac, a french painter. In May 1978, she hold an individual exhibition at the Portuguese Cultural Center in Paris.
In 1980, she had her exhibition in the SNBA (Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts), named "The Face and Fruits". From 1981 she lived in Vieiro, Portugal. Next year, she visited Westkunst in Cologne, Documenta de Kassel and the Venice Biennale.
Morais began professional relationship with gallerist Manuel de Brito in 1983 and exhibited at Galeria 111 in Lisbon and at the Abade de Baçal Museum in Bragança. During next four years, she participated in a number of exhibitions.
In 1988, at the invitation of the Portuguese Ambassador, Morais visited Cape Verde. She was related to the local artistic milieu and was one of the founders of the first independent Cape Verdean publishing house "Ilhéu Editora". The following year, she presented the result of her visit to the Portuguese Cultural Center, in the City of Praia and in Mindelo. Morais also made the cover design and four illustrations for Clara Pinto Correia's "The Imperfect Prince".
Later, in 1990, she exhibited her recent works, subsequent to her return from Cape Verde, in Macao.
Graça Morais made a trip to Japan in 1992, visiting the National Center of Culture. The painted diary of the trip, with texts by Jorge Borges de Macedo and Alberto Vaz da Silva, was published the following year.
Also in 1992 Morais held the exhibition of the series "The World Around Me" at the Kimberly Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Scott Allan Gallery in New York, United States. In 1994 she had an anthological exhibition at the Mitra Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal.
Besided, she set design and costumes for the play "Ricardo II", by Shakespeare, with staging by Carlos Avillez. Exhibition of the series As Chosen, at Galeria 111 in Lisbon in 1995. Since then, she has regularly exhibited her works at that gallery. Moreover, in 2001, Morais also exhibited in Paris, France.
In 2009 she inaugurated in the Ratton Gallery, Lisbon, the exhibition of painting and drawing "The Mask and the Time". Three years later, she held the exhibition "The Walk of Fear" at the Tree Cooperative, Porto and the Graça Morais Contemporary Art Center, Bragança.
Aside from painting, Morais illustrated a number of books, including "The Year of 1993" by José Saramago, "The Angel of Timor", by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, and "The Metamorphoses" by Agustina Bessa-Luís, among others.
Graça Morais currently lives in Portugal.
Graça Morais is a member of the National Academy of Fine Arts and of various associations, confraternities and cultural foundations.
On April 19, 1974, Graça Morais gave birth to her daughter Joana Andrea Pinto Morais Lopes da Silva, born from the first marriage with the painter Jaime Lopes da Silva, known as Jaime Silva.
Currently, she is married to the musician Pedro Caldeira Cabral.