Paula Rego:

Drawing on the folk traditions of her native Portugal, Paula Rego creates unsettling, politically charged paintings, prints, drawings and collages. Permeated with a sense of uneasy ambiguity, Rego’s work explores the dynamics of human cruelty, brutality, and power in the context of interpersonal relationships, political systems, and social structures. An ardent supporter of women’s and abortion rights, Rego uses her art to make powerful and timely statements: in one of her best-known series, 1994’s Dog Women, her animalistic depictions of women, rather than suggesting debasement, convey a defiant embrace of physical power.