Magnets

In Elsa Ribeiro's magnets, the same attentive gaze towards the coastal territory and Portuguese tradition that runs through the rest of her work finds its smallest and most immediate expression here. Each piece is a carefully crafted miniature, molded and hand-painted with the same precision as her larger-scale pieces, only reduced to a size that fits in the palm of your hand—and then, on the refrigerator, in the cupboard, on any everyday metallic surface.

The themes follow the repertoire that defines her work: maritime motifs, Portuguese houses in their simplest form, donkeys that allude to rural life and to the very name of Burros e Artes (Donkeys and Arts). In each magnet, detail is essential—the texture, the color, the gesture—because it is in this that the entire piece is concentrated.

Small objects to collect, give as gifts, or simply distribute around the house, Elsa Ribeiro's magnets are discreet fragments of a larger work: pieces of clay that carry with them the sea, the land, and the traditions that inspire all her ceramics.