In "Zodiac," Maria Bernardino's print art piece, the magic of the four elements is renewed. She was the winner of the Young Art Award from CPS in 2019. Within the collection of 36 pieces dedicated to this theme, Water, Earth, Fire, Air, and their respective Zodiac signs take on the symbolism of their associated colors. The vibrant red represents the blazing fire that fuels all passions and the intensity and radiance of life itself. The blue represents water, the color that embodies the imaginary and serves as the starting point for the great journey of dreams and the birthplace of all living forms. The golden yellow represents the sun and is alchemical, symbolizing a land whose destiny is to expand and make all its creatures vibrate under the light of a celestial body that represents totality and the divine. The gray represents the air, which within its transparent atmosphere is the source of great transformations, a metaphor for both the small and great mysteries.

Maria Bernardino renews a tradition that spans many centuries, which is now reborn in the refinement and magic of her 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 to understand human emotions, highlighting 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 (the tendencies of each sign), aspects (distances between the angles of each planet), planets (which exist in parallel with the signs), houses (which divide the sky of the astrological map again), and the horizon line (from which the ascendant emerges, making the map precise). Straddling interpretive freedom and the legacy of a long tradition governed by mathematically precise elements, Zodiac is the result of a journey that seeks to be similar to the task of an astrologer - interpreting and intuitively and inspiringly setting the tone, playing with the field of possibilities existing in the astrological universe.

Maria Bernardino, Dec. 2021