Engaging Description:

Experience the renewed magic of the four elements in Maria Bernardino's print "Zodiac," winner of the Young Art Prize from CPS in 2019. In this collection of 36 pieces dedicated to the theme, Water, Earth, Fire, Air, and the corresponding signs of the Zodiac take on the symbolism of their associated colors. The vibrant red represents the crackling fire that fuels all passions and the intensity of life itself. The blue of water, the quintessential color of imagination, is the starting point for the grand journey of dreams and the cradle of all living forms. The golden yellow, solar and alchemical, embodies a land whose destiny is to expand and make all its creatures resonate with the light of a celestial body that symbolizes totality and the divine. The gray of the air, within its transparent atmosphere, is the source of great transformations, metaphorical of both small and great mysteries.

Bernardino revitalizes a tradition that spans centuries, now reborn in the refinement and magic of her simultaneously artistic and poetic signs.

Maria João Fernandes

International Association of Art Critics (AICA)

In the Artist's Words:

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 personal and transpersonal spheres. It can be regarded as a divination practice when used as an oracle, but it can also serve as a tool for understanding human emotions and identifying emotional aspects by comparing specific tendencies with individual personalities.

"Zodiac" was created during a journey of discovery into the elements that make up the horoscope: affinities (each sign's tendencies), aspects (distances between each planet's angles), planets (which coexist with the signs), houses (which divide the astrological map's sky), and the horizon line (from which the rising sign emerges, rendering the map precise). Balancing interpretative freedom with the inheritance of a long tradition governed by mathematically exact elements, "Zodiac" is the result of a journey that seeks to resemble the task of an astrologer—interpreting, intuitively and inspiringly setting the tone, while playing with the field of possibilities within the astrological universe.

Maria Bernardino, Dec. 2021