Inspired by the ocean

Vanessa Barragão is sending ripples through the world of design, art and fashion. Her largescale textile wall hangings and rugs, bursting with colour and texture are having a moment. Her nature-inspired tapestries are bringing life to the white walls of gallery spaces, transforming shop windows into works of art, and adding statements to interior spaces. The young Portuguese talent is making a name for herself for both her artistic abilities and sustainable approach.

From her studio in Albufeira, the seaside city in Southern Portugal where she grew up, Vanessa handcrafts her textile creations using ancestral techniques and an ecological artisanal process, which involves recycling wasted yarns and transforming them into artistic marine gardens. To make her textural pieces, Vanessa employs a variety of traditional textile forms such as crochet, latch hook, weaving, embroidery and macramé with materials sourced from the deadstock of Portuguese factories.

Her creative process is both organic and meditative. It requires precise hand gestures, and a dedicated and passionate philosophy. As a graduate fashion designer, Vanessa fostered her early interest in textiles working in Porto as a textile designer in an artisanal rug factory, here she honed her skills and learned a lot about the textile industry. She established her first studio in 2018 to dedicate her time fully to creating pieces, which resonated with her personal philosophy.

“I love design, arts, textiles, sculpture and the ocean! So I started making the tapestries inspired by the sea and the corals.” – Vanessa Barragão

Her ethos is one that is closely linked to the sea and her love and respect for the underwater world and its biodiversity. From her upbringing by the sea and her visits to the coral reefs, she was struck by both the beauty of the marine environment and by the alarming speed of its degradation due to human impact. This consciousness has led her to pursue a sustainable approach to textiles, an industry which is often associated with high pollution. Through her soulful art, Vanessa seeks to raise awareness and encourage a sense of human responsibility in remedying the danger facing oceans and the incredible natural beauty of the earth’s marine life.