Description
Intimidade II (2024) is one of the most striking works by Ritchelly Oliveira, a Brazilian artist currently living in Portugal. This piece marks the first time he incorporates Portuguese inspiration into his artistic practice. Using charcoal and acrylic on canvas, Ritchelly creates a powerful dialogue between cultures, emotions, and symbolic storytelling. The background, composed of Portuguese tile motifs in blue, white, and yellow, introduces a strong cultural element that reflects the country that now shapes his life and work. In the foreground, the artist presents a deeply intimate and expressive portrait, a hallmark of his visual language. The figure is surrounded by white birds, a recurring symbol in Ritchelly’s oeuvre. In his work, birds represent fragility, emotional sensitivity, and inner states, acting here as a metaphor for the delicate construction of identity and memory.
The mixed technique, a hyper-realistic charcoal portrait contrasted with the vibrant graphic patterns of the tiles, makes this artwork unique within his body of work. This contrast creates a poetic tension between the personal and the cultural, between the silence of the gaze and the decorative strength of the background.