BIO
Lícia Santos (b. 1998) is an Angolan artist working between Lisbon and London. She graduated in 2022 from the Slade School of Fine Art with an MFA in Painting. Lícia has been awarded the Euan Uglow Memorial Scholarship, selected to participate in Series 7 of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year ( both 2020) and shortlisted for The Morrison Foerster Art Prize (2023).
Her practice is centred on painting as a space for material and emotional inquiry, working with oil paint alongside sand, earth pigments, and drawing. Shaped by an ongoing engagement with the desert as both a physical and poetic reference, her work explores the relationship between the human body and landscape. Through figurative and mixed-media processes, Santos investigates states of presence and absence, using material experimentation to reflect on memory, identity, and the passage of time.
Lícia’s creative process develops between field research and focused studio time. Referencing classical oil painting and African sand techniques, her paintings on linen feature muted palettes and combine layers of oil paint, pencil, loose pigments and collected sands. Lícia uses these materials to explore how transparency and texture help to convey ideas of interiority and the passage of time.
CV
Born in Namibe, Angola, 1998.
Works between Lisbon and London.
EDUCATION
2020-2022: MFA Painting, Slade School of Fine Art, London
2017-2020: BA Fine Art and History of Art, Goldsmiths University, London
SOLO EXHIBITION
2026 (Upcoming, September) Galeria Ella, Luanda
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 (Upcoming, 28 April) Apsara Studios, London 2025 Black and Global Majority Art Fair, Casildart London 2025 Residency, Museu Provincial do Namibe, Angola 2024 The Universe Within, Copeland Gallery, London
2023 In Search of Peace and Love Amongst the Flowers, OXO Gallery, London
2023 Morrison and Foerster Art Prize show, The Scalpel, London
2023 Open Studios, V.O Curations, London, England
2022 Graduate Show, Slade School of Fine Art, London
SELECTED AWARDS, GRANTS AND PRIZES
2023, Morrison Foerster Art Prize (shortlist) selected by Andrea and Kirsty Maffioli
2020, Euan Uglow Memorial Scholarship (winner)
2020, Portrait Artist of The Year (selected contestant), series 7 episode 7, Sky Arts
SELECTED PRESS
Knowledge Quarter, Private View: Slade 150 & Testing Ground Exhibitions in Online resource (2022) at [https://youtu.be/rTvVk1t5cLQ] consulted on 29 June, 2023.
Before the Moon I am, Artist Interview with curator Latifah A.Stranack in Online resource (2022) at [https://www.instagram.com/tv/CauCiFhqRqq/?igshid=ZTJlZmI4ZjZmNw%3D%3D] consulted on 29 June, 2023.