Biography
Rajaa Paixão. Lebanese-Portuguese. B. 1980, Jbeil-Byblos, Lebanon. Lives in Lisbon, works between Lisbon and London.
Rajaa Paixão is an Arts Professional working in the area(s) of Humanities with emphasis on Fine Arts — Multidisciplinary Artist, Independent Curator — and award-winning Creative.
She defended her theory-practice PhD in Fine Arts/Sculpture with Distinction and Honours at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon (FBAUL) (2025). Rajaa Paixão is a member of the Centre for Research and Studies in Fine Arts (CIEBA), Lisbon.
Rajaa Paixão holds a Master of Arts with Distinction in European Art Practice from Kingston School of Art, London (2014); a Master of Arts with Distinction in Communication and Visual Art from the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) (2003); a French Baccalaureate, Literary section – French Literature and Philosophy from the Collège de la Sainte Famille Française, Jounieh (1997) issued by the Academy of Aix-Marseille, France.
Her former roles include Director of Communications, Janet Rady Fine Art Ltd., London; Interim Head of Art, M&C Saatchi Mena. Her former part-time roles include Art Instructor, Smart Art Workshop Ltd (2015) Primary Schools, Kingston upon Thames, London; Marketing Assistant, filmpro (2014), The Southbank Centre, London; Art Director, M&C Saatchi (2011), London; Tutor, Creative Advertising & Art Direction Module, USEK (2006).
Her latest publications as author include ‘Conditional Fictive Objects in Contemporary Sculpture Practice’, CAP – Cadernos de Arte Pública, ‘Escultura: Estudos’, Vol. 2 nº1, 2020 (peer-reviewed), presented at the ‘Research Seminar in Sculpture and Artistic Studies’, Dec 2020; ‘Fatalism as a product of Motherhood in the context of Sculpture’, Convocarte – Journal of Art Studies, ‘Arte e Tempo’, nº9, Dec 2019 (peer-reviewed); ‘Timeless Black’, Senzacornice online magazine of contemporary and critical art, ‘Color’, n°21, Oct 2019 – Jan 2020 (peer-reviewed); ‘Underlining the hidden and the elusive in the art of Lourdes Castro’, GAMA journal, Art Studies, Vol. 7, nº13, 2019 (peer-reviewed) and in Dez anos depois: o X Congresso CSO’2019 (peer-reviewed).
Her latest exhibition texts include ‘there it was. staring back at me’, Janet Rady Fine Art, Artsy (selected as main Featured Show), Artscapy, (Jul-Aug 2023); ‘DISRUPTING THE DELICATE · Contemporary Ceramics by Ten Women Artists’, Janet Rady Fine Art, Artsy, Artland, (Dec-Jan 2022); ‘Paul Ettedgui | Sight Lines’, Janet Rady Fine Art, Artsy, Artland, (Nov 2021); ‘as in Façade’, Janet Rady Fine Art, Artsy, Artland, (Oct-Nov 2021).
Her certificates of participation include ‘Speaker’, Encontro de Investigação em Arte e Design (EnIAD), Lisbon (Oct 2019); ‘Speaker/Congressista’, X Congresso Internacional CSO: Criadores Sobre outras Obras, Centro de Investigação e de Estudos em Belas-Artes (CIEBA), Lisbon (Apr 2019).
She is part of the ‘Engage’ platform on Procreate Project, London; and a member of Where Are The Women Artists (WATWA).
Rajaa Paixão was an Artist-in-Residence-in-Motherhood at An Artist Residency in Motherhood / ARIM, and was an artist-in-residence at They Eat Culture, Preston (2014). She was shortlisted for the first Mother Art Prize by Procreate Project, London (2017). She was featured in X Congresso CSO’2019 (2019); Museum of Motherhood, Florida (2018); Mom Egg Review, New York (2018); Procreate Project, London (2018); Collect Connect, London (2015).
Rajaa Paixão’s selected coursework and workshops include ‘What Is Contemporary Art?’, The Museum of Modern Art/MoMA online; ‘Clay Seminar’, Standpoint Gallery, London; ‘Psychoanalysis after Freud’, 3-month evening course, Freud Museum London; Neoclassical Sculpture, 4-year private tuition, ‘Constant Contact Boot Camp’, London; ‘Ideas Academy Tribe’, Saatchi & Saatchi London; ‘Brand Philosophy’ Workshop, Oman; ‘Presentation Skills’ Workshop, Beirut.
Rajaa Paixão took part in several exhibitions across England. Her paintings have been acquired by private collectors in Italy and in England. She was commissioned two bas-reliefs for the Monastery of Our Lady of Ilige, Lebanon.
Her spoken languages include English, French, Lebanese, and Portuguese.
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Statement
In my practice, I tackle a multidisciplinary approach mainly encompassing sculpture and painting, at times complemented by drawing, audio sound, and film turned into assemblages or mise-en-scènes.
I have always been fascinated with fictive narratives and objects, their provenance, their history, and mainly, materials. It is only during the progress of my ongoing thesis that I have truly understood how central the idea of the physical object, physical elements and fictive spaces are to my artistic process. Built on this concern with the nature of perception and narratives in relation to the physicality of materials, I redefine and reorder physical objects by examining divergent themes including time, space, and ubiquity. The creation process resembles a reverse visual digression from the mental to the physical, the real to the fictive, and vice-versa, and explores the boundaries of my memory, recollected dreams, and imagination. It sharpens abstract perceptions of blurry events through a dissected analysis of the subject matter, with the purpose of demystifying the complexity of an event and minimalising thematic narratives by stripping it to its essentials.
The choice of content is the result of an elimination procedure of any element that has no useful function to the work, betraying a strong influence by Minimalism. Once my understanding of what I’m actually doing has been formulated and in a way assimilated, the work has gradually become less minimalist, more colourful and more detailed. My abstract paintings have lately shifted to figurative portraits, once again going in reverse, against the flow, unexpectedly making complete sense to me among the sculptures.
The assemblages combine unconventional materials designated by the needs of the elaborated narratives, juxtaposed with found objects, engaging with each other in relation to space.
Bases play a role as primordial as the created object, merging into one sculpture with an orchestrated correlation between all the displayed pieces.
Bibliography
Conditional Sculpture: Balancing the Real and the Imagined through Fictive Objects in Contemporary Art Practice
[Author] PhD Thesis – Repositório ULisboa
Conditional Fictive Objects in Contemporary Sculpture Practice
[Author] CAP – Cadernos de Arte Pública, ‘Escultura: Estudos’, Vol. 2 nº1, 2020 (peer-reviewed)
Fatalism as a product of Motherhood in the context of Sculpture
[Author] Convocarte – Journal of Art Studies, ‘Arte e Tempo’, nº9, Dec 2019 (peer-reviewed)
Timeless Black
[Author] Senzacornice online magazine of contemporary and critical art, ‘Color’, n°21, Oct 2019 – Jan 2020 (peer-reviewed)
Underlining the hidden and the elusive in the art of Lourdes Castro
[Author] GAMA journal, Art Studies, Vol. 7, nº13, 2019 (peer-reviewed)
Underlining the hidden and the elusive in the art of Lourdes Castro
[Author] Dez anos depois: o X Congresso CSO’2019 (peer-reviewed)
Featured News
Solo Show | 30 Jun 2025
‘Conditional Sculpture’
Sculptural work by Rajaa Paixão, part of a practice-theory PhD research, will be displayed in the Foyer Space, and on the first floor of the FBAUL premises in Lisbon.
Solo Show | 15 May 2025
A Comissão Cultural do ISEG tem o prazer de anunciar a inauguração da exposição Escrita Rizomática em Termos Esculturais, de Rajaa Paixão no âmbito da parceria com a FBAUL, Lisboa.
Exhibition | 13 Sep 2024
Janet Rady Fine Art announces evocative Artsy online show & virtual viewing room exploring the nuances of childhood through the eyes of contemporary artists including Rajaa Paixão.
Exhibition | 13 Mar 2024
Group show featuring Rajaa Paixão, opening 13th March with private view on 15th March, 6-9pm at Electro Studios Project Space, St Leonards on Sea, England, UK.
Feature | 11 Jul 2023
Artsy selected ‘there it was. staring back at me’ as one of their main featured shows. Curated by Rajaa Paixão, the online exhibition is presented by Janet Rady Fine Art.
Curatorial | 05 Jul 2023
Online group show at Janet Rady Fine Art, curated by Rajaa Paixão, featuring Maria José Cabral, Amy Dury, Hannah Knox, Fergal Styles. Reflects on a poem by the late Etel Adnan. 5 Jul to 1 Aug 2023.
Exhibition | 03 Jun 2023
Rajaa Paixão’s work part of the public exhibition of Procreate Project in partnership with UK organisations: Modern Art Oxford, Ovada, The Old Fire Station, Make Space, Hastings Contemporary, Lewisham Shopping Centre, Build Hollywood, the Science Gallery and Mulalley.
Feature | 07 Mar 2021
Procreate project seeks to support artists in a multitude of ways and encourages you to engage with the unique work of artists whose practice informs and aligns with their ethos.