The Artist

Visual Artist, Textile/Fiber expert, Master Felter, Art educator, Researcher, Alchemist and Shapeshifter. Lives and works in Porto, Portugal. Ana Rita de Arruda is a contemporary visual artist from Covilhã, a city steeped in textile history. Growing up with a grandmother who taught textile arts, Ana Rita inherited a deep understanding of textile craftsmanship, which she transformed into a bold and exploratory art practice. Through her work, she challenges conventional distinctions between art and craft, using wool and other Fibers to explore the politics of materiality, identity, and labour. Her sculptures and installations often push the boundaries of textile manipulation, engaging audiences with tactile, immersive experiences that question historical narratives around textile work. With a feminist lens, Ana Rita reclaims textile art from its often-dismissed status, turning it into a medium for both personal expression and social critique. Her work frequently explores the tensions between softness and strength, nature and technology, and tradition and innovation, often incorporating interactive and sensorial technology. She has exhibited in a range of spaces, from site-specific installations to solo exhibitions, and her pieces frequently engage with the themes of transformation, resilience, and the intersection of human experience with the material world. Ana Rita's approach bridges art, education, and community engagement, continuously pushing the limits of textile as an artistic language.