
Born in Lisbon, in 1975. Lives and works in Lisbon.
Her large-scale pieces, usually in Indian ink on tracing paper, depict figures that oscillate between dreams, phantasmagoria and reality. The conceptual focal point of her work is the significance of the face as a symbol in contemporary imagery. She has produced several series of portraits inspired by iconic figures in popular culture, cinema, and art history, always with a strong connection to literature.
Molder’s drawings and paintings create an instant feeling of familiarity between the viewer and her work, making it both relevant and accessible.
As we look at the entirety of her oeuvre, we are faced with a gallery of figures which combine elements of portraitist fidelity with fictional or narrative inventiveness, while over the whole hangs something we will call an atmospheric quality, to avoid calling it an aura. An atmosphere that turns representation into memory, where the separation between picture and viewer becomes irreversible, leading to the inevitability of the almost soft passing of a shadow of death.1
Adriana Molder studied Stage Design at the National Conservatory’s Theatre and Cinema School, and took the Drawing, Advanced Visual Arts and Individual Project courses at Ar.Co, in Lisbon. She participated in international residencies, such as the Budapest Galéria (Budapest) and was an artist in residence at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin) in 2007, the year in which she was awarded the Herbert Zapp Revelation Prize for Visual Arts in Berlin, where she would reside for thirteen years. Previously, while still in Lisbon, she won the Celpa/Vieira da Silva Visual Arts Revelation Prize in 2003. Adriana Molder has exhibited her work in Portugal and abroad since 2002 Among her solo exhibitions, the following stand out: 2025 – “Aldebaran Caída por Terra/Aldebaran Fallen to the Ground”, MNAC - National Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal; “Antares”, Galeria Municipal Torreão Nascente da Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon, Portugal; 2023 – “Serpentina”, Escola das Artes, UCP, Porto, Portugal; 2022 – “Espelho/Mirror”, Galeria 111, Lisbon, Portugal; 2021 – “O Meu Rosto Está Aqui, no Fogo-Fátuo/My Face Is Here in the Wildfire”, Winter Garden, São Luiz National Theatre, Lisbon, Portugal; 2018 – “Todas as Fotografias do Ford/All of Ford’s Photographs”, Travessa da Ermida Project, Lisbon, Portugal; 2014 – “The Light in the Heart”, Art Plural Gallery, Singapore; 2012 – “A Dama Pé-de-Cabra, Paula Rego e Adriana Molder /The Goatfoot Lady, Paula Rego and Adriana Molder” (an original project conceived with Paula Rego), Casa das Histórias - Paula Rego, Cascais, Portugal; 2011 – “Winter Was Hard”, Beck & Eggeling, Düsseldorf, Germany; 2009 – “We have faces!”, DSV Kunstkontor, Stuttgart, Germany; “V”, Arpad Szenes - Vieira da Silva Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal; 2007 – “Der Traumdeuter/ The Dreamreader””, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany; 2007 – “A Madrugada de Wilhelm e Leopoldine/The Dawn of Wilhelm and Leopoldine”, Carmona e Costa Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal; 2006 – “Hôtel”, Fruehsorge Gallery for Drawing, Berlin, Germany; 2003 – “Copycat”, Sacred Art Museum of Funchal, Funchal, Portugal; 2002 – “ Câmara de Gelo/Ice Chamber”, Sintra Museum of Modern Art - Berardo Collection.
Her work is represented in several private and public collections, in Portugal and abroad, including Novo Banco, António Cachola Collection, Berardo Collection, Figueiredo Ribeiro Collection, Union Fenosa, Lisbon City Council and Kupferstichkabinett - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
Between 2020 and 2024, she directed the exhibition project “Galeria da Casa A. Molder” in Filatelia A. Molder, a philately shop that was founded by August Molder.
1. ( Jurriaan Benschop, Frédéric de Senarclens and Alexandre Melo)