EcoNarratives of a Trembling Earth - Translating Ecology Through Abstraction

Galeria Presença in Porto is presenting EcoNarratives of a Trembling Earth, a solo exhibition by Portuguese artist Marisa Ferreira that explores the complex relationship between nature, materiality, and abstraction. On view from 24 January to 14 March 2026, this exhibition offers visitors a thought-provoking encounter with works that interpret ecological instability through colour, form, and fragmentation.

The show invites reflection on how human activity and environmental change resonate within artistic language, using a visual vocabulary that is at once geometric, immersive, and evocative. EcoNarratives of a Trembling Earth draws on Ferreira’s extensive practice and research to position ecological concerns within the terrain of contemporary visual expression.

Art and Environment in Dialogue

At its core, EcoNarratives of a Trembling Earth examines how elements of nature can be refracted through abstraction. Ferreira investigates the ways that colour modulation, geometric forms, and fragmented composition can express the shifting, fragile states of the natural world. Rather than offering literal representations of landscapes, the works suggest ecological processes, instability, and transformation through an interplay of visual rhythms.

The exhibition’s title hints at a world constantly in motion, where the earth itself becomes a trembling entity. This trembling can be read as an allegory for the planet’s ecological precarity in the face of climate change, species loss, and human intervention. In this way, Ferreira’s approach merges aesthetic exploration with urgent environmental discourse.

From Research to Exhibition

Ferreira’s work on EcoNarratives of a Trembling Earth stems from her practice-led PhD research titled Waste Matters: Public Art and the (Im)Materiality of Post-Colonial Memory, completed at the Royal College of Art between 2020 and 2025. Her research often considers how industrial materials and memory intersect with place and cultural identity, providing a foundation for the ecological resonances in this exhibition.

Working across sculpture, painting, photography, and public art, Ferreira’s practice resists easy categorisation. Her work engages in dialogue with modern and contemporary artists who investigate abstraction, materiality, and spatial perception, while also foregrounding questions about how we relate to the world around us.

Experiencing the Exhibition

Visitors to Galeria Presença will encounter a series of works that articulate tension between structure and entropy. Through boundaries that shift and colours that pulse, the exhibition creates a space where attentive looking becomes a way of listening to the earth’s tremors. The visual narratives unfold across media and surfaces, encouraging a sensory engagement with environmental themes that are both urgent and poetic.

EcoNarratives of a Trembling Earth does not merely illustrate ecological issues; it reframes them within a visual and conceptual landscape that asks viewers to consider how abstraction itself can be an ecological language. Ferreira’s work thus becomes a site where artistic form and environmental concern intersect in compelling and unexpected ways.

Visiting Information

• Location: Galeria Presença, Rua Miguel Bombarda 570, Porto

• Dates: 24 January - 14 March 2026

• Admission: Free

Galeria Presença continues its mission of fostering dialogue between contemporary art and audiences by presenting works that challenge, inspire, and resonate with the urgent cultural and ecological questions of our time.