Paula Rego: subversive stories at Arnolfini

Arnolfini are proud to present the work of Portuguese artist Dame Paula Rego RA - unarguably one of the most important figurative artists of her generation – delving into her extraordinary imagination and celebrating the alchemical process of printmaking that is as central to her practice today as it has always been.

Image: Courtesy Paula Rego and Cristea Roberts Gallery, London ©️ Paula Rego.

Following on from the largest retrospective to date of the artist’s work at Tate Britain (July to October 2021), and exhibitions with Cristea Roberts Gallery (new representatives of the artist’s prints), Hogarth House and Museum de Reede, in Belgium (both 2021) and Victoria Miro (late 2021) Rego returns to Arnolfini almost 40 years after her first exhibition with the gallery (in 1982-83), creating an opportunity for a new generation of visitors to explore the artist’s subversive stories.

Featuring over 70 prints from across Rego’s extensive career, Subversive Stories ventures inside the artist’s disquieting imagination in which she casts herself as storyteller and master puppeteer, interweaving her wit and dark humour to reimagine stories old and new. In Rego’s world women loom monstrously large, repositioned as the protagonists and heroes as she reinterprets classic tales, imbuing innocence with a darker sexuality, and instilling issues of gender, power, and politics with both light and shade.

Exploring printmaking as a process that informs Rego’s multi-layered interpretations, the exhibition looks deeper at Rego’s mastery of the medium (encompassing lithography, etching and screen print) as printmaking takes on a metaphorical meaning, bringing shadowy readings to childish mischief, whereas as the harrowing practices of illegal abortion or female genital mutilation are brought out into the light.

Drawing on Rego’s childhood, familiar faces from past and present appear throughout, and dreams and nightmares come alive through the immediacy of the medium; its spontaneity feeding Rego’s constant curiosity and vivid imagination. This celebration of the artist’s enduring appeal reveals the multi-layered and magical language of printmaking, creating surreal and subversive stories with not so ‘wicked’ women at their heart.

Rego comments: “I have very fond memories of showing at the Arnolfini in 1983 and am looking forward to showing my prints there next year. When the prints are shown well, their stories dominate, so I’m very interested to see how it all comes together.”

Paula Rego is represented by Cristea Roberts Gallery, the worldwide representative for her original prints and Victoria Miro, representatives of original works.

The exhibition will be open Tuesday to Sunday each week, 11am to 6pm, entry is free and will be bookable in advance via arnolfini.org.uk.