Inês Mendes Leal

Inês Mendes Leal is a multidisciplinary artist of Swiss, French, and Portuguese heritage, living and working in Lisbon. She completed a postgraduate degree in Sound Art at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon in 2023, following a postgraduate degree in Discourses of Contemporary Photography at the same institution in 2020. She holds a BA in Multimedia Art from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon (2016–2019) and, between 2018 and 2019, attended the École de Recherche Graphique (ERG) in Brussels.

Mendes Leal’s practice investigates the action of air, wind, temperature and other intangible forces on objects, images, and spaces. Working across sound, video, photography, sculpture, drawing, and installation, she explores how these invisible forces can be translated into the exhibition space. Her work is driven by an attraction to the void and to what escapes direct perception, seeking to reveal, sense, and integrate the invisible into the visible.

In 2022, Mendes Leal was awarded the Prémio Arte Jovem, organised by Carpe Diem Arte e Pesquisa.

Recent exhibitions include Reaching for fata morgana, Galeria da Boavista / Galerias Municipais de Lisboa (2026); 10 out of 10, Fundação PLMJ, Lisbon (2026); Holbein Syndrome, Galeria Francisco Fino, Lisbon (2025); my vent is making a weird sound is this normal?, Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon (2024–25); and Force Majeure, Belo Campo / Galeria Francisco Fino, Lisbon (2024–25).

Her first solo exhibition at the gallery will open in November 2027.