I don’t know if everything originates in the gaze. At least my gaze frequently dazzles with unexpected images that in vain I try to engrave in my memory. The remains of those impressions appear in my paintings through my hands. I’m lost, running in circles, trying to organize these countless references. I believe that what I do depends on my gaze and what I achieve in painting is what arises from the contingency of living (what you experience, you may also not experience).The becoming of the gaze, knowing that it continuously balances between seeing and not seeing, explains why reality is so difficult to follow. Painting will always be in the contingency of a gaze, on the (im)possibility of understanding reality.These formal particularities of a concept allow the evaluation of different lines of work where painting relates intimately to its support and on the way it’s displayed on the wall. Abstraction is only one of the aspects of my work as the direction of the gaze and the relative position of the viewer to what he is seeing establishes important structural paths. Gesture defines the use of colour but gaze dominates the quest for meaning.
Painting makes me a “flâneur” (for its responsiveness to movement, the relaxed gaze, its obsession for exploring reality, the translation to a new reality where time has no meaning) and this practice is what most matters to me
PEDRO CALAPEZ - Born 1953, Lisbon, Portugal - Lives and Works in Lisbon, Portugal
EDUCATION
1976-81 University of Fine Arts Lisbon, BFA, Painting
1972-75 Arts Foundation Course, National Fine Arts Association, Lisbon.
1969-74 Civil Engineering Technical studies, University of Lisbon.
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2012 “Máximo Ramos Graphic Arts Award”, Ferrol, Spain
2005 “National Graphic Arts Award”, National Chalcography, Royal Fine Arts Academy, Madrid, Spain
2005 “AICA Award” (International Association of Art Critics, Portuguese Branch). 2001 “EDP Painting Award”, Lisbon
1994 “Drawing Award”, Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation, Majorca, Spain
(Among others)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 “Uninhabitable places”, Camões Portuguese Cultural Centre, Luxembourg
2016
“A shadow secret”, Carmona Costa Foundation, Lisbon
2013
There is only drawing”, Luís Seoane Foundation, A Coruña, Spain
2012
“Dark skies”, Paula Rego Foundation, Cascais, Portugal
2011
“Kickflip”, PLMJ Foundation, Lisbon
2009
“White and neutral clarity”, Contemporary Art Centre Casa da Cerca, Almada, Portugal
2005
“Painting places”, CAB-Burgos Bank Art Centre, Burgos, Spain
2005
“ground zero”, CGAC-Galicia Contemporary Art Centre, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
2004
“Selected works 1992-2004”, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
2002
“Madre Agua”, MEIAC - Contemporary Art Museum, Badajoz and CAAC - Andalucia Contemporary Art Centre, Seville, Spain
Many other solo exhibitions since 1982 in Museums and Art Galleries in Portugal and abroad.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018
“Wanderings / BlackBox”, Caramulo Museum, Caramulo, Portugal
2017
“Quote/Unquote”. MAAT Museum, Lisbon
2015
“EuroScope”(BEI Collection), Cercle Cité, Luxembourg
2016
“Backstories”, FASVS Museum, Lisbon and Mudas, Madeira Contemporary Art Museum, Portugal
2011
“The collection”, Barrié Foundation, A Coruña, Spain
2010
“It’s not my fault”, Berardo Museum, Lisbon
2009
“The collection”, Serralves Museum, Oporto, Portugal
2007
"Maps, cosmogonies and reference points”, CGAC-Galician Centre for Contemporary,Santiago de Compostela, Spain
2006
Beaufort Outside - Inside, Contemporary Art Triennial, PMMK Museum, Ostende, Belgium
2005
“From zero to 2005. Insights on Portuguese art”, Marcelino Botín Foundation, Santander, Spain
2001
“EDP. ART”, Serralves Museum, Oporto, Portugal
1999
Days of dark and light, Bonn Fine Art Museeum, Bonn, Germany
Many other group exhibitions since 1975
SELECTED COMISSION PROJECTS
2017
“Nathan The wise”, Theatre Set design for Almada City Theatre, Almada, Portugal.
2012
“71 Volt”, Glass printed panels for new Turbine Hall at Picote Dam, EDP, Portuguese Electricity Company. Portugal
2010
Glass panels for Alves Martins Secondary School façades, Viseu, Portugal.
2007
Main doors and façade bronze panels for the Holy Trinity Church, Fátima, Portugal.
2006
“Four seasons”, set of 35 acrylic painted aluminium panels for S. Francisco Xavier Hospital, Lisbon.
2005
“Snow of thorns”, set of 17 acrylic painted aluminium panels for Lady of the Snow’s Chapel at Ílhavo Public Library, Ílhavo, Portugal.
2005
“Woods”, Theatre Curtain for Almada City Theatre, Almada, Portugal.
2002
“Undisclosed ornament”, set of 20 acrylic painted aluminium panels for Geronimo’s Monastery, Lisbon.
1998
Design of city square with stone drawings sidewalks for EXPO 98, International Lisbon Exhibition, Lisbon
1998
“Jungle”, Ceramic panel for Lisbon Subway Station (Olaias), Lisbon.
1997
Painted Ceiling for City Hall, Lisbon