‘Botânico´ (2026) Mary Whalley & Miguel Pinheiro. Linocut printed on 300gsm cotton rag

This collaborative linocut was created for Miguel Pinheiro’s exhibition, ‘Everybody’s got something to hide except me and my monkey’ (January 2026, Galeria de Arte da Casa da Mutualidade, Coimbra). Throughout the exhibition, Pinheiro uses the monkey motif to reference the culture and history of Coimbra.

In this specific interpretation, titled ‘Botânico’, Mary Whalley references art history and the work of Henri Rousseau. Rousseau famously painted jungle scenes based on tropical plants found in Paris greenhouses rather than firsthand travel. Similarly, Whalley spent time sketching plants in Coimbra’s Botanic Garden and greenhouses (estufas) to create the jungle environment for Pinheiro’s monkey.

The two artists combined their linocuts and printed them at Coimbra’s Tipografia Damasceno on the 1873 Albion Press.