Paula Rego

ARoS presents the first solo exhibition in Denmark dedicated to Paula Rego (1935–2022), one of the most significant and influential artists of her generation. For nearly seven decades, Rego challenged authority, patriarchal structures and the roles traditionally assigned to women through her uncompromising visual language.

Paula Rego’s distinctive visual world is populated by strong, vulnerable and rebellious characters caught up in intense psychological dramas. Familiar figures such as the princess, the witch and the mother take on new roles in Rego’s interpretations of fairy tales and folk stories, challenging our perceptions of gender, power and identity.

Rego was born in Lisbon in 1935 and grew up under the authoritarian regime of António de Oliveira Salazar before moving to the UK as a young woman to study art. She settled there and spent most of her artistic career in Britain. Her work also had a tangible political impact. Through a powerful series of images depicting women undergoing illegal abortions, she contributed to the debate on abortion rights in Portugal, where the law was changed in 2007. In recent years, her work has been featured in major retrospective exhibitions at institutions including Tate Britain in London and MUNCH in Oslo.

Rego’s works offer no simple answers. Drawing on her own experiences of dictatorship, gender and power, they continue to challenge the way we see the world.

The exhibition is curated by Jakob Vengberg Sevel.

The exhibition is made possible with support from Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond and I.F. Lemvigh Müllers Fond.