1948: Born in the village of Freixiel, in Trás-os-Montes.

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1955: Attended elementary school in Vieiro. 

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1957-58: Lived in Mozambique, having returned the following year to Vieiro. Started attending high school in Vila Flor.

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1961: Entered Bragança High School. In the following years he painted the scenery for a performance of Gil Vicente's Auto da Alma, and collaborated in the high school newspaper.

 

1966: Entered in Escola Superior de Belas Artes in Porto to study painting. Chagall and Van Gogh were his first references.

 

1970: In this period, he made his first trip abroad, to London, Amsterdam and Paris, in 1970.

1971: Completed the painting course in 1971 and presented the 5th year assessment exhibition at the Escola Superior de Belas Artes in Porto.

 

1972-74: Moved to Guimarães, where he taught Visual Education. It is there that, in 1974, he exhibits for the first time, at the Alberto Sampaio Museum.

 

1975: Took part in Encontros Internacionais de Arte in Viana do Castelo. Founded, with eight artists and an art critic, the Puzzle Group, with which he collaborated in group exhibitions for two years.

 

1976-78: Lived in Paris with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Met the artists Eduardo Arroyo and Bernard Rancillac and intensifies the study of the work of Picasso, Matisse and Cézanne.

 

1978: In May she organized a individual exhibition at the Portuguese Cultural Centre in Paris.

 

1980: Presents the exhibition at the National Society of Fine Arts: The Face and Fruits.

 

1981: Moves to Vieiro. "Retrouver et dire sa vie", title of a text she published in Paris, becomes the driving force of her work. She held a individual exhibition at the Roma e Pavia gallery in Porto. She began large-scale series, where the incision of his lines and the dramatic expressiveness of his staging of the motifs she drew stood out.

 

1982: Visits in Cologne the great exhibition of Western art Westkunst, the Documenta in Kassel and the Venice Biennale.

 

1983: Starts her professional relationship with the gallery owner Manuel de Brito and exhibits at the 111 in Lisbon and at the Abbot of Baçal Museum in Bragança.

 

1984: Exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo: Mapas e o Espírito da Oliveira, whose work she previously exhibited in Lisbon at the National Society of Fine Arts. She exhibits twenty drawings at Árvore. Participates in the exhibition Eleven Young Portuguese Painters, at the German Institute in Lisbon, curated by Rui Mário Gonçalves. In 1985 she shows the same exhibition at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro. The same series, added to the series Erotismo e Morte, was shown at the University of Granada. The monograph Graça Morais, Linhas da Terra, by António Mega Ferreira, was published (Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda).

 

1987: Collaborates with cover and ten drawings in the illustration of The Year of 1993, by José Saramago. Held the exhibition in Lisbon, at 111: Evocações e Êxtases. Participated in collective exhibitions of Portuguese painters in Madrid, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Washington.

 

1988: At the invitation of the Portuguese Ambassador, visits Cape Verde. Relates to the local art scene and is one of the founders of the first independent Cape Verdean publishing house, Ilhéu Editora. The following year, she exhibits the results of her visit at the Portuguese Cultural Center in Praia and Mindelo. Signed the cover design and four illustrations for O Príncipe Imperfeito, by Clara Pinto Correia.

 

1990: Exhibited recent works, after her return from Cape Verde, in Macau.

 

1991: Receives the SocTip Award - Artist of the Year. Executes the tile panel for the new Caixa Geral de Depósitos building. Was represented in the exhibition about Art in Ibero-American Embassies, in Washington.

 

1992: Visited Japan, accompanying a trip of the National Center of Culture. The painted diary of the trip (with texts by Jorge Borges de Macedo and Alberto Vaz da Silva) will be published the following year. Executes the exhibition of the series "The World Around Me" at the Kimberly Gallery in Washington and the Scott Allan Gallery in New York.

 

1993: Designed the set design for Jean Genet's play Os Biombos, performed by Carlos Avillez's Teatro Experimental de Cascais. Starts the anthological exhibition of his work at the Paço dos Duques de Bragança, in Guimarães.

 

1994: Her anthological exhibition is presented at the Galeria da Mitra in Lisbon. Participates in the collective exhibition Waves of Influence, about five centuries of Portuguese tiles, in the United States.

 

1995: Composes the scenography and costumes for the play Ricardo II, by Shakespeare, with staging by Carlos Avillez. Implements the exhibition of the series As Escolhidas, at 111 in Lisbon.

 

1997: Executed the anthological exhibition Memória da Terra, Retrato de Mulher, at Culturgest, in Lisbon, and at the Soares dos Reis Museum, in Oporto. Inaugurated a panel of tiles in the Belarus station of the Moscow Metro. Makes the exhibition in the Ratton Gallery of the tile panels Os Cães. Published the book Graça Morais, with texts by Vasco Graça Moura and Sílvia Chico (Quetzal/Galeria 111).

 

1998: Held the exhibition at the 111 in Oporto: Geographies of the Sacred. The same exhibition is presented, in 1999, in Italy, in Trento, and in Lisbon, at Palácio Foz. He exhibited Sete Tapeçarias at the Portalegre Tapestries Gallery in Lisbon, and the series Anjos da Montanha at the Ratton Gallery.

 

2000: Exhibits the series 'Terra Quente - Fim do Milénio' at 111, in Lisbon. Joana Morais films the documentary 'Na Cabeça de uma Mulher está a história de uma Aldeia', about the life and work of her mother, Graça Morais.
 

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2001: Exhibits the same series in Paris at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Cultural Center and Mountain Goddesses in the Camões Institute delegation. Orpheu e Eurydice, by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, is edited with works by the artist.

 

2002: The exhibition is presented at 111, in Lisbon: The Age of the Earth.

 

2003: Holds the exhibition, A Terra e o Tempo, at the Museu da República Arlindo Vicente, in Aveiro. On this occasion, the book A Terra e o Tempo (Painting and Drawing 1987/2003) (Aveiro City Council) is published.

 

2004: Designs tile panels for the Amadora Metro station and the Vilar de Frades power station. The book O Segredo da Mãe is published, with texts by Nuno Júdice on paintings by Graça Morais (Quetzal).

 

2005: Exhibits, at 111 in Porto, the series Visitation. The book Uma Geografia da Alma (Bial) is published. "Portraits and Self-Portraits", Cascais Cultural Center; "The blue eyes of the sea", Sines Arts Center.

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2006: " Dialogues with the Earth", Galeria Ratton, Lisbon; "Portraits and Self-portraits", Art Gallery of the Municipal Theater of Guarda.

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2006/2007: "Graça Morais in the Paço d'Arcos Foundation Collection – Painting, drawing and tile (1982 to 2006)", Torreão Nascente Gallery of Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon.

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2007: "Silêncios", Chaves Municipal Library and Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso Municipal Museum, Amarante; "Orpheu and Eurydice", Palace of Culture of São João da Madeira and House of Culture of Trofa.

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2007/2008: "In suffering", Municipal Museum - Chiado Building, in Coimbra.

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2008:  "Graça Morais in the Paço d'Arcos Foundation Collection – Painting, drawing and tile (1982 to 2006)", Palace Gallery, Almeida Garret Municipal Library, Porto. "Graça Morais: Painting and Drawings" at Galeria 111, Porto.

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2008/2012: Series of exhibitions at the Graça Morais Contemporary Art Center, opened in 2008.

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2009: Opens the painting and drawing exhibition 'A Máscara e o Tempo' at Galeria Ratton, Lisbon.

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2012: "A Caminhada do Medo" at the Cooperativa da Árvore, Porto and at the Graça Morais Contemporary Art Center, Bragança.

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2013: Receives the 2013 Acquisition Grand Prize, awarded by the National Academy of Fine Arts.