Maria Luz: Contemporary painting and film photography in Lisbon
Maria Luz works with oil painting and film photography to look closely at overlooked city objects.
Chairs, gloves, nets, and small street fixtures become clear pictures where light carries the scene and color sets the tone.
“Her paintings prove that ordinary things don’t need to change to become extraordinary.”
Luz focus is steady and unsentimental: praising the common without dressing it up.
Born 1999 in Lisbon; based in Lisbon. Studies: BA in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon; Erasmus semester at the University of Ljubljana.
Earlier studies in Industrial Design at ESAD.CR inform her attention to clean edges and functional clarity in the image.
Maria Luz: On the left: Cleanings, 2021, oil on canvas, 60 × 40 cm. On the right: The Tear Bucket, oil on linen, 50 × 50 cm, 2021. Images courtesy of the artist.
Maria Luz: On the left: Portrait of a Blue Trash Bag, 2021, oil on linen, 110 × 90 cm. On the right: Tiny Trike, 2023, oil on canvas, 70 × 50 cm. Images courtesy of the artist.
Young Art Prize 2022 by Millennium BCP and Carpe Diem.
Maria Luz: There is a very fine line between independence and loneliness, 2022; Young Art Prize by Millennium BCP and Carpe Diem; box with 100 photos, 5 × 7 cm each; edition of 4 boxes. Images courtesy of the artist.
Maria Luz:There is a very fine line between independence and loneliness, 2022; Young Art Prize by Millennium BCP and Carpe Diem; box with 100 photos, 5 × 7 cm each; edition of 4 boxes. Images courtesy of the artist.
Street first, studio later
The work begins in the city and ends on canvas.
Luz photographs what intrigues her, sketches with a fine line rooted in her etching habit, then paints in oil for a lasting surface and color that stays vivid when dry.
The path is direct: collect, note, translate, paint.
Light as structure, color as memory
She treats light as a framework that holds the scene together and uses strong color as a way to keep memory alive, a quiet form of nostalgia that softens the scene without sentimentality.
Shadows are deliberate, grounds uncluttered, so that the object can do the work.
Objects that don’t ask for drama
Chairs, gloves, bags, nets, bollards. Ordinary things that carry traces of use and presence.
The images avoid spectacle; they slow the look and let small details feel sufficient. The aim is to praise the common and the forgotten.
Oil for patience, film for grit
Oil painting gives time and precision: crisp edges, measured shading, surfaces that read calmly.
Film photography keeps a little grain and street texture, holding on to the world’s roughness while staying clear.
Together they balance neatness and reality.
Maria Luz: On the left and on the right: film photography. Images courtesy of the artist.
Maria Luz: On the left and on the right: film photography. Images courtesy of the artist.
From city noise to studio quiet
Luz describes starting among urban restlessness and ending in a calm practice.
That shift is visible in the restraint of her compositions and in the way she builds a “black sheet” book of photographs and notes to see connections across objects.
Maria Luz: On the left: Lies & Petals, 2023, oil on canvas, 33 × 24 cm. On the right: Hope, 2023, oil on canvas, 20 × 15 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
Why this work matters now
These pictures model a way of looking that many of us have lost: patient, precise, unhurried.
In a visual culture that runs on spectacle, Luz offers clarity and proportion.
The ordinary regains value through attention, which reads here as an ethic as much as an aesthetic.
Maria Luz and Inês Eixo: On the left: Jogo das Cadeiras (The Chairs’ Game), earrings, photo by Eva Fisahn (@elf.visuals); on the right: Tennis Match, jewelry piece, Photo by Leonor Gomes (@leomg_01). Both works belong to Eixo de Luz, a collaborative jewelry project founded by Maria Luz and Inês Eixo, exploring playful design and memory through miniature objects. Follow @eixo.de.luz and @eixo_ines. Images courtesy of the artist.
Luz is the co-founder of Eixo de Luz, a collaborative jewelry project created with Inês Eixo, exploring playful design and memory through miniature objects.
team mutablep
Recent presentations include a showing at Art Basel in Paris with Garcé & Dimofski and a presentation at ArtPE in Pernambuco with Nova Banca Galeria, placing her work in front of an international audience while keeping the scale intimate.
Prendrecontact
Follow Maria Luz on Instagram and visit her website. If this practice speaks to you, share it with someone who cares about painting, film photography, and the beauty of overlooked objects.
Our readers also read this →
Dominique Catherina Foertig
Ernst Koslitsch
Dominique Catherina Foertig
Member discussion