Guest Artist · Season 01 · House of Sarmento

Ana Margarida Costa

A home is a container for memory. Her work is what those memories look like before we have words for them.

Untitled · From Inheritance of Shadow · Charcoal, oil & oil pastel on 200 g/m² paper · 2025 · 50 × 65 cm

The Work

From Inheritance of Shadow

Charcoal, oil & oil pastel on paper · 2025 · 50 × 65 cm

Experience leaves marks — in the body, in thought, in habit. My work traces those marks into visible form. Everything I create carries traces of that process: of turning what was lived into something that can be seen and felt. Ana Margarida Costa

Why it was here

At the House of Sarmento, we believe that a home is a container for memory. Ana's work struck me because she explores the things we feel before we have the words to describe them.

She investigates how identity is "trained" by our upbringing — how the very way we stand or see is shaped by the past. Having her art on these walls is a reminder that we all carry invisible inheritances. It invites us to stop and look at the layers of memory that define who we are.

— Pedro

About Ana Margarida Costa

Ana Margarida Costa (b. 1999, Lisbon) is a Portuguese artist who uses painting and drawing to give form to the experiences that shape us before language takes over. Her work investigates how identity is constructed early in life — examining how fear, care, and even physical objects influence the way a body moves and understands itself.

Her current research dives into deep, resonant themes: generational inheritance, the silent loss of identity through Alzheimer's, and the long-term effects of growing up with fragile vision. She creates with both urgency and structure, seeking to form narratives that remain open enough to stay with the viewer long after the encounter.

@anamargaridacosta.studio

Ana Margarida Costa

From Inheritance of Shadow

Why it was here

About Ana Margarida Costa