Zodiac: The magic of the four elements is renewed in Maria Bernardino's print artwork "Zodiac," winner of the Young Art Prize from CPS in 2019. Within the set of 36 pieces dedicated to this theme, Water, Earth, Fire, Air, and their respective Zodiac signs assume the symbolism of the colors associated with them. The fiery red that fuels all passions and the intensity and radiance of life, the blue of water, the quintessential color of imagination, the starting point of the great journey of dreams and the cradle of all living forms, the golden yellow, solar and alchemical color of a land whose destiny is to expand and make all its creatures vibrate in the light of a celestial body that symbolizes totality and the divine, and the gray of the air which, within its transparent atmosphere, is the source of great transformations, metaphor of the small and great mysteries.

The artist renews a tradition that dates back many centuries, which today reemerges in the refinement and magic of its simultaneously visual and poetic signs.

Maria João Fernandes

AICA - International Association of Art Critics

Artist's Statement:

According to the classical definition, Astrology is a pseudoscience that holds that the relative positions of celestial bodies provide information about personality, human relationships, and other spheres, both personal and transpersonal. It can be considered a divinatory activity when used as an oracle, but it can also be used as a tool for understanding human emotions, marking emotional aspects by comparing certain tendencies with elements of each individual's personality.

Zodiac was created during a journey of discovery of the elements that make up the horoscope: affinities (tendencies of each sign), aspects (distances between the angles of each planet), planets (that exist in parallel with the signs), houses (that divide the sky of the astrological chart again), and the horizon line (from which the ascendant emerges, making the chart precise). Between interpretative freedom and the inheritance of a long tradition governed by mathematically precise elements, Zodiac is the result of a journey that seeks to resemble the task of the astrologer - to interpret, set the tone intuitively and inspired, playing with the field of possibilities that exist in the astrological universe.

Maria Bernardino, Dec. 2021