Documenting matriarchal lineage and women's labour in Madeira, Portugal

Blueprint of their hands
Cyanotype
Madeira, Portugal, 2026
Artworks
"In Madeira, I photograph the women before me and feel myself slowly becoming one of them."

Liliana Vieira at Magdalen Road Studios, 2026
"In Madeira, women's hands tell stories. My grandmother's hands. My mother's hands. Soon, my hands. My work documents the matriarchal lineage that shapes me, women whose labour built families, communities, lives. Through black and white photography and alternative processes, I trace the inheritance of feminine strength, the transformation I see in the mirror, the ways I am slowly becoming these women."
Artist Biography
Liliana Vieira is a Portuguese Fine Art Photographer whose practice centres on analogue photography. She graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London (2024).
Liliana’s work has been exhibited both internationally and, in the UK, including at Caravel Gallery, the only contemporary art gallery in Madeira, Portugal, and across London. She is currently an artist-in-residence at Magdalen Road Studios, hosted by Magdalen College School in Oxford.
Through her photographic practice, Vieira explores themes of maternal lineage, matriarchy, and heritage, paying homage to the soil, labour, and traditions that shape her identity. Working with analogue processes, she documents the physical and emotional labour embedded in image-making, capturing not only her ancestors but also the behind-the-scenes gestures of developing, printing, and creating.
Her work situates itself between memory, materiality, and ritual, reflecting on how photography can act as both an archive and a form of ancestral storytelling.
Education
Bachelor of Fine Art
Goldsmiths, University of London
2024
Solo Shows
Black and White
Magdalen College School
Oxford, United Kingdom
2026
What Could Have Been
Art Center Carvel Gallery
Funchal, Madeira Island
2025
Group Shows
Representation of People
The Oxfordshire Museum
Oxford, United Kingdom
2025
Goldsmiths Degree Show
St James Hatcham Building
London, United Kingdom
2024
This Way Up
Abingdon Campus
Oxford, United Kingdom
2021
Evolve
Magdalen Road Studios
Oxford, United Kingdom
2019











