Deolinda Fonseca

Deolinda Fonseca (born 1954 in Porto) is a well-known Portuguese painter who since 1979 has primarily worked in Denmark, "which, from an artistic point of view, has been a somewhat peripheral region throughout most of its history – just like Portugal." She is highly regarded for her evocative oil paintings of mostly abstract themes, though with hints of realistic images. She also paints vivid portraits, in which she combines realistic representation with abstract expressionism.

Her work is characterized by the kind of expressionism that oscillates between abstraction and figuration, an expressionism that connects the essence of the abstract pictorial depths, with a subtle disperse figuration.

"The artist makes us take part in an endless motion of entering and exiting the painting, expanding our vision beyond infinity or drowning it in an abyssal aperture of space and light; or on the contrary, retracts our vision to a position in front of the structural elements, pushing the canvas in our direction; or, even, makes us hover above the surface of the canvas, captivated by the dilution of the brush strokes and its contradictory gestures," observed the art critic Laura Castro. "The paintings of Deolinda Fonseca are synthesized in these three movements that together configure three worlds: one that planes over the painting itself, another that drifts away towards it, and another that exists over here."

Sinne Lundgaard Rasmussen, a Danish writer on art, has praised the "strength" of her paintings, saying that "Painter and paint meet in the painting, and this is where we find Deolinda Fonseca."

Fonseca graduated as a painter and sculptor at Faculdade de Belas-Artes do Porto in 1979, and she has lived in Denmark since then. In 2002, she received Portugal's medal of honor, the "Order of Prince Henry" (in Portuguese, "Ordem do Infante D. Henrique"), a type of knighthood. She has exhibited throughout Denmark and Portugal, as well as in other European countries, and her work is displayed in museums, embassies and private collections in Europe and the United States.