Different Ways of Staying, Joana Galego

Joana Galego presents Different Ways of Staying, a new body of work that uses memory as a pivotal tool with which to unpick the threads of belonging. About Galego's vibrant paintings capture intimate moments, vignettes revealing passages of life, ultimately creating a universal understanding of the private and personal. The works are saturated with memories of her birthplace of Cascais in Portugal. She captures the sun’s warmth against sleeping skin, dappled by pine branches, the dark waves of the Atlantic rolling in across the canvas, sounds of life from the pavement on a late summer evening. Different Ways of Staying champions the concept that there is no “right way” of living, just “your way”. A little girl peeps out from behind a bouquet of flowers with a thorned rose; hands are outstretched towards golden leaves; a couple holds a newborn baby; between memories of past choices and life paths that the artist has contemplated living, all these different realities play out simultaneously across her paintings. She is faced with the modern issues of womanhood: to choose a family or a more unconventional path. Grief and joy intertwine; the past, present, and future collapse into each other. Painting