Atelier Contencioso is the workspace of three artists, Ana Velez, Joana Gomes and Maria Sassetti. Founded in February 2015, also with Xana Sousa, it is currently located at HANGAR - Centro de Investigação Artística [Lisbon, Portugal] and it came from the common need to find a work space and, also, from the complicities and parallels in the pictorial production.

The works that have been developed, whether as a joint artistic intervention or collective exhibition, start from a site-specific thinking, considering the place with its specificities, presenting themselves as a challenge for the artists and an added value for the space that welcomes them. However, this idea of “place” as the center of the work does not fully understand the complexity of the work carried out. Contributing to four distinct bodies of work, each common project is lent a multiplicity of concepts and references that sometimes also respond to specific commissions.
In Atelier Contencioso's portfolio, as a collective project, the highlights are the artistic interventions in Rio Maravilha [Lisbon, Portugal, 2015] and the installations Mamba-de-Jameson, on the facade of Pensão Amor [Lisbon, Portugal, 2016], Das Dez ao Meio-Dia [Óbidos, Portugal, 2018], Damasco Prateado, a project from the Public Art Program SONAE SIERRA on the facade of Livensa Living Lisboa Cidade Universitária [Lisbon, Portugal, 2020], Jacarandá in the lobby of the Sofitel Lisbon Liberdade Hotel [Lisbon, Portugal, 2021], and Nárkissos for ModaLisboa - Lisbon Fashion Week [Lisbon, Portugal, 2022]. Sopro [Lisbon, Portugal, 2020], art project recipient of the A Arte Chegou ao Colombo Award and exhibited at Museu Colecção Berardo. As well as the exhibitions Tudo o que se imagina, at the Museu Geológico de Lisboa [Lisbon, Portugal, 2016], which was based on a text written for the exhibition by the author Afonso Reis Cabral, Torre de Madeira at Galeria do Museu da Carris [Lisbon, Portugal, 2017] , with text by Mara Silvério, Mano-a-Mano at the Galeria Águas-Livres 8 [Lisbon, 2019], curated by Jorge André Catarino, Off-site at Underdogs | Príncipe Real [Lisbon, Portugal, 2019], a co-production Atelier Contencioso and Underdogs, Sufoco at Galeria Cisterna [Lisbon, Portugal, 2021], with text by João Macdonald, Battle Royale at BAG Banco das Artes - Galeria [Leiria, Portugal, 2022], curated by Jorge André Catarino, and No Self at CABANAmad [Lisbon, Portugal, 2022], curated by Antonio Lettieri.