Parto Sem Dor / Notes on Portuguese-ness

Rita Pena brings her solo exhibition Parto Sem Dor / Notes on Portuguese-ness to the Montage Gallery at QUAD in Derby, opening on 21 November 2026 and running through to 7 February 2027. Pena is a Nottingham-based Portuguese photographer and visual artist, and the show looks at how national identity is built from family histories, personal memory and Portugal's political and colonial past.

Much of the work comes from Pena's own life: her grandmother's grief and her own relationship with family and country. She uses those personal threads to pull at something larger, looking at how national ideals are handed down through the generations and the long shadow of the Estado Novo's 'Deus, Pátria, Família' (God, Fatherland, Family) ideology. It's a way of asking how the things a country tells its people about themselves end up sticking, even long after the regime that pushed them is gone.

The exhibition moves between fact and fiction, mixing family photographs and correspondence with archival documents, portraits, still lifes, landscapes and digital manipulations. It's not just a family album, though; there's a collaborative side to the project, developed with migrants living in the East Midlands whose own histories connect to Portugal through colonialism and trade. That local connection brings the whole thing closer to home, tying Portuguese history to the people living right here in the region.

Pena is no stranger to working with the community — she previously worked on 'The Meadows', a project embedded in the local area. She's also a recipient of CVAN EM's Bigger Bursary and support from the Nottingham City Council Cultural Investment Fund. Parto Sem Dor / Notes on Portuguese-ness runs from 21 November 2026 to 7 February 2027 at the Montage Gallery, and entry is free.