
Ana Linehan (b. 1994, Leiria), artistic name Shamatata, explores the body as a site of vulnerability and impermanence. Her perspective on the physical form is shaped by the raw frailty and pain she witnessed through her mother’s career in nursing. These shared experiences transform the body into a landscape of fragmentation and persistent unease—a theme echoed in her choice of fragile or reclaimed materials.
Influenced by the distortions of Francis Bacon and the raw materiality of Alberto Burri, Shamatata’s work rejects closed narratives. By embracing error, excision, and precarious mediums, she utilizes fragmentation to provoke a sense of discomfort. Her practice demands a silent confrontation with the viewer, carving out a space of restless empathy where the fragility of the form is the inherent condition of existence.