The artists

Ana Maria Pacheco

A Brazilian-born painter and sculptor, Pacheco arrived in the UK in 1973 on a British Council Scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art, London. She was eventually to make her home and establish an international reputation here, and currently lives in South London.

In 1996 she was invited to become the fourth Associate Artist at the National Gallery, London (1997-2000). She was both the first non-European and the first sculptor to take up this appointment.

Ana Maria Pacheco is an artist of extraordinary diversity. Born in Goiânia in the State of Goiás, Brazil in 1943, her work draws on a wide variety of cultural references, including Brazilian folklore, classical myth, mystical Catholicism, West African iconography, and satire. She has developed a particular use of symbols, motifs and devices that combine to produce a distinctive and fantastic imagery.

She has had a number of one-person shows and group exhibitions in galleries in Britain and abroad. Recent venues include Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts, 2008, the National Gallery, London (touring); Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ireland; Dak'Art 2000, Senegal, West Africa; British Museum, London; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Galleri F15, Moss, Norway (touring); Kunsthalle Wien, Austria; Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York and the Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts.

Her piece for Wallspace, Memoria Roubada I, was completed in 2001 but has never been shown in the UK. Memoria Roubada II is an entirely new piece, created specially for the exhibition, in response to the space and history of All Hallows on the Wall.