Franka Struys

Franka Struys is a Dutch visual artist based in Lisbon. In 1990, she graduated in Economics and started a diplomatic career until she moved to Portugal, where in 2009 she decided to follow her passion and studied painting at Ar.Co in Lisbon. Since 2013, her work has been shown at a variety of galleries and exhibition spaces in Portugal. She took part in the artist residency program at RAMA-Residencies (2021), Portugal. Franka is co-founder of the Young Collectors Circle Lisbon (2022) and facilitates workshops in painting with natural mineral pigments. 

Her work is about connection with nature. Since 2000 Franka has lived in Colares where she draws her inspiration. She translates her experiences of time spent in her local environment into abstract paintings that explore how to simplify the complex, uncertain world we live in into a new model. Her work is a search for balance and harmony, seen visually in terms of composition, color and form, as well as emotionally through reduction. She invites the viewer to meditate on landscape, connect with the outer and inner world and find moments of contemplation.

Franka works intuitively, preferably large scale, and incorporates natural materials collected on the beach into her paintings. Her technique is gestural. She loves the unexpected effects of the application of materials, embracing irregularities and imperfections. She is inspired by Abstract Expressionists and Color Field Painters.