Born in the sunny and warm lands of Angola/Africa, in the province of Malange, by choice of her parents, both Portuguese, somewhere in an uncertain year, perhaps because of this, she is averse to counting time and assigning a number to her age, or to any other measure of beauty, wealth, love, etc. With fair and white skin, as if it were a piece of linen bleached in the sun, she discovers when moving to Portugal that she was considered “2nd class white”.
The eldest of two, she was born a cherub but quickly turned into a black sheep, much to everyone's surprise. This supposed misfortune was soon accepted by the family and today it is rarely mentioned publicly, as a matter of politeness. Rebellious from an early age, she soon reveals an interest in the arts, in sewing and in justice, scribbling whatever she finds handy, sewing original clothes for Russalkas (1) and a pet Domovoy (2) or, splitting the heads of the Mariolas (scamps) in her grandmother's small village. A gentle warrior who, despite preferring to resolve everything peacefully, is known for scaring away many Rougarous (3) and Baba Yagas (4) and for cutting off a head or two of Wendigos (5), fighting several battles in villages, mountains and valleys.
When she was finishing the Plastic Arts course - Painting; at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Porto, her parents decided to move to Macau (China), which forced her to travel regularly, keeping one foot here and one foot there (an easy thing for a ballet dancer) offering her the opportunity to learn something from the different cultures and people she came across in the different countries she visited: Macau, China, Hong Kong, Australia, France, England, Tunisia, Cuba, Italy, Brazil and of course, Spain where she lived and attended the Master in Aesthetics and Theory of Contemporary Art at UAB, and where the dream of opening her own art gallery was born.
After these wanderings, she returned to Portugal and was invited to teach Basic Drawing, Representation Drawing and Global Arts, at the Sound and Image Course, at the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP) and to exhibit in Porto Art District - Miguel Bombarda Quarter. For some years, she participated in individual and collective exhibitions, competitions/awards (where she won some prizes), but was particularly involved in her academic work, sacrificing her personal freedom, for future generations, as a teacher at UCP and public schools, while trying to develop a unique artistic work.
Célia Machado divides her life (and creation) between the small stone house in her grandmother's village, hidden in the mountains and valleys of northern Portugal, and her home/atelier on the outskirts of Porto, or between the family home of the self-taught artist Uc Clavero (his companion), in a small village on the island of Lanzarote and (of course) their Peculiar art gallery, in the historic center of the city of Porto. In the past, she used various techniques and materials to reflect on how each of us and society look at others. A look (gaze??) made of measures and absent of affection.
Using autobiographical references, she makes observations that, while not being provocative, are subtle and ironically direct criticisms. Recently, she has been playing with the (re)interpretation of children's stories, extending them to other landscapes, creating a world of her own, where anonymous characters appear, who seem to have come out of some story, but we are not sure which one and which take us to magical and dreamlike places. The artist's work inspired by “old wives' tales” and bizarre characters from fantastic cinema, is full of symbologies and scraps of memories, of double readings and multiple interpretations.
Alongside this work, she finally builds with the self-taught artist Uc Clavero, the Peculiar Art Gallery, in the historic center of the city of Porto. And she is also a Co-founder of the collective “Os Peculiares” and a found member of the embryonic project “Dollolandia”.(1) water nymphs or mermaids, in Slavic and Russian mythology (2) domestic elf or goblin (3) legendary werewolf-like creature (4) supernatural creature similar to an old forest hag (5) monstrous human-eating creature (6) ) carved female figure that serves as a support, like a column or pillar, in Greek temples.