DELIA HAMER Wie Spreu die der Wind Verstreut

Lisbon-based artist Delia Hamer speaks German, Spanish, Italian, English, and is now “fighting my way through Portuguese”. Born in Cologne, she grew up near Malaga, studied in Milan and London. “My whole family is German but they have never been fans of living there. We are all a bit sprinkled out across Europe.”

Her background is more academic than creative but her uncle, Dirk Hamer, “a great painter in my opinion, was killed at 19”. He died in 1978 having been shot accidentally while asleep on the deck of a boat anchored off Corsica. Hamer believes this was “partly the reason my family was so supportive of me pursuing my painting – to fulfil a destiny that ended before it could start”.

Raised in the countryside, “not the most vibrant cultural scene”, Hamer says her single mother “did a great job hauling my older sister and me across Europe to all the museums during the holidays”. It was also a “rather strict upbringing within the Evangelical charismatic movement.”