Exhibition Views
contemporary art gallery
Rui Sanches
Words Don't Come Easy
10 MAY 24 - 29 JUNE 24
I'm using photography as a way to investigate and try to understand these seas. I attempted to make them more artificial and less natural.
Nuno Cera in conversation with Miguel Nabinho
Photographic documentation
Among the one-person exhibitions we can single out: “Drawings”, CAM, Gulbenkian Foundation; “Body Building”, Loja da Atalaia, Lisbon; “Rui Sanches, Retrospective”, CAM, Gulbenkian Foundation and “Museum”, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon. Some important group-exhibitions were: the 19th São Paulo Bienal; “PASTFUTURETENSE”, Winnipeg Art Gallery and Vancouver Art Gallery; “Tríptico”, Europália 91. Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent; “From Silence to Light”, Watari-Um, Tóquio; “Abstract/Real”, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Viena; “Dentro y Fuera” Cáceres and “Serralves 2009 – The Collection”, Museu de Serralves, Porto. During the 1980’s his work was based on the deconstruction of paintings and genres of painting.
Rui Sanches was born in Lisbon (1954) where he lives and works. He studied at Ar.Co, in Lisbon, at Goldsmiths’ College in London (B.A. 1980) and at Yale University in New Haven (M.F.A. 1982). He received a Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship for the period 1980/1982. His first one-person exhibition of drawings took place in Lisbon in the Modern Art Gallery of SNBA in 1984, soon followed by a first exhibition of sculpture in Galeria Diferença, in the same city. Since then he has shown his work in many galleries, museums and art centers, both in Portugal and abroad.
Among the one-person exhibitions we can single out: “Drawings”, CAM, Gulbenkian Foundation; “Body Building”, Loja da Atalaia, Lisbon; “Rui Sanches, Retrospective”, CAM, Gulbenkian Foundation and “Museum”, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon. Some important group-exhibitions were: the 19th São Paulo Bienal; “PASTFUTURETENSE”, Winnipeg Art Gallery and Vancouver Art Gallery; “Tríptico”, Europália 91; Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent; “From Silence to Light”, Watari-Um, Tóquio; “Abstract/Real”, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Viena; “Dentro y Fuera” Cáceres and “Serralves 2009 – The Collection”, Museu de Serralves, Porto. During the 1980’s his work was based on the deconstruction of paintings and genres of painting.
Artist Bio
Among the one-person exhibitions we can single out: “Drawings”, CAM, Gulbenkian Foundation; “Body Building”, Loja da Atalaia, Lisbon; “Rui Sanches, Retrospective”, CAM, Gulbenkian Foundation and “Museum”, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon. Some important group-exhibitions were: the 19th São Paulo Bienal; “PASTFUTURETENSE”, Winnipeg Art Gallery and Vancouver Art Gallery; “Tríptico”, Europália 91; Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent; “From Silence to Light”, Watari-Um, Tóquio; “Abstract/Real”, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Viena; “Dentro y Fuera” Cáceres and “Serralves 2009 – The Collection”, Museu de Serralves, Porto. During the 1980’s his work was based on the deconstruction of paintings and genres of painting.
Patrícia Garrido graduated in painting at the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes in Lisbon (ESBAL). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions which include: Mais Tempo, Menos História, Serralves Foundation, Porto (1996); O Império Contra-Ataca, Galeria ZDB, Lisbon (1998); Squatters, Galeria do CRUARB, Porto (2001). Solo exhibitions include: T1, Serralves Foundation, Porto (1998); Móveis ao Cubo, Desenhos ao Acaso, TREM Galeria Municipal de Arte, Faro (2009); Peças Mais ou Menos Recentes, EDP Foundation, Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis and Galeria Fernando Santos, Porto (2013).
Rui Sanches was born in Lisbon (1954) where he lives and works. He studied at Ar.Co, in Lisbon, at Goldsmiths’ College in London (B.A. 1980) and at Yale University in New Haven (M.F.A. 1982). He received a Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship for the period 1980/1982. His first one-person exhibition of drawings took place in Lisbon in the Modern Art Gallery of SNBA in 1984, soon followed by a first exhibition of sculpture in Galeria Diferença, in the same city. Since then he has shown his work in many galleries, museums and art centers, both in Portugal and abroad.
Artist Bio
Rui Sanches was born in Lisbon (1954) where he lives and works. He studied at Ar.Co, in Lisbon, at Goldsmiths’ College in London (B.A. 1980) and at Yale University in New Haven (M.F.A. 1982). He received a Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship for the period 1980/1982. His first one-person exhibition of drawings took place in Lisbon in the Modern Art Gallery of SNBA in 1984, soon followed by a first exhibition of sculpture in Galeria Diferença, in the same city. Since then he has shown his work in many galleries, museums and art centers, both in Portugal and abroad.
Among the one-person exhibitions we can single out: “Drawings”, CAM, Gulbenkian Foundation; “Body Building”, Loja da Atalaia, Lisbon; “Rui Sanches, Retrospective”, CAM, Gulbenkian Foundation and “Museum”, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon. Some important group-exhibitions were: the 19th São Paulo Bienal; “PASTFUTURETENSE”, Winnipeg Art Gallery and Vancouver Art Gallery; “Tríptico”, Europália 91; Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent; “From Silence to Light”, Watari-Um, Tóquio; “Abstract/Real”, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Viena; “Dentro y Fuera” Cáceres and “Serralves 2009 – The Collection”, Museu de Serralves, Porto. During the 1980’s his work was based on the deconstruction of paintings and genres of painting.
Artist Bio
“What was interesting and fun in the work was exactly trying to see how I could, using these materials and this kind of language, make the letter something interesting visually.”
Rui Sanches in conversation with Miguel Nabinho
Artworks
Among the one-person exhibitions we can single out: “Drawings”, CAM, Gulbenkian Foundation; “Body Building”, Loja da Atalaia, Lisbon; “Rui Sanches, Retrospective”, CAM, Gulbenkian Foundation and “Museum”, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon. Some important group-exhibitions were: the 19th São Paulo Bienal; “PASTFUTURETENSE”, Winnipeg Art Gallery and Vancouver Art Gallery; “Tríptico”, Europália 91. Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent; “From Silence to Light”, Watari-Um, Tóquio; “Abstract/Real”, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Viena; “Dentro y Fuera” Cáceres and “Serralves 2009 – The Collection”, Museu de Serralves, Porto. During the 1980’s his work was based on the deconstruction of paintings and genres of painting.
The meaningful process of written language is different from that of visual “language”. Letters are shapes and also symbolic signs. They are consensually assigned a certain meaning, which allows them to be combined according to the grammatical rules in force, giving rise to words which, in turn, can be organized into more complex sentences and texts. Changes to the shape of letters may not interfere with their direct semantic meaning, but they do create different connotations that change their meaning.
I recently re-read Honoré Balzac’s wonderful novel “Le chef-d’oeuvre inconnu”, which is an inspiring meditation on the status of the work of art and the role of subjectivity in its realization. The painter Nicolas Poussin, who is one of the central characters in the episode narrated by Balzac, has always held a great fascination for me. In one of his major works entitled “The Shepherds of Arcadia”, the Latin motto Et in Arcadia Ego appears inscribed on a tomb. It was this elegiac phrase that I chose to work on, creating a sculptural form for each letter. Made of pine plywood, a “poor”, austere material, but with a visually effusive, pictorial surface, the letters are arranged on a shelf to form the intended phrase, presenting themselves to the viewer as three-dimensional objects that can be seen from various points of view.
Words are sometimes trivialized by their indiscriminate use. Words that express powerful meanings are often used for everything and nothing. An example of this is the frequency with which the verbs “love” and “hate” are thrown into conversation about the most insignificant things. The opposite of this mindless use is the appearance of these same verbs, in English, in the hands of the sinister protagonist of Charles Laughton’s “The Night of the Hunter”. Robert Mitchum, who plays the disturbing character, has the letters that form the words “LOVE” and “HATE” tattooed on each phalanx of his fingers. These were the words I used to build the other sculptures. I added a wall piece made up of the LFTE which, in English, can form the words “FELT” and “LEFT”, tenses of the verb “to feel” and “to let”, which add another layer of ambiguity to the whole.
Rui Sanches
Words are sometimes trivialized by their indiscriminate use. Words that express powerful meanings are often used for everything and nothing. An example of this is the frequency with which the verbs “love” and “hate” are thrown into conversation about the most insignificant things. The opposite of this mindless use is the appearance of these same verbs, in English, in the hands of the sinister protagonist of Charles Laughton’s “The Night of the Hunter”. Robert Mitchum, who plays the disturbing character, has the letters that form the words “LOVE” and “HATE” tattooed on each phalanx of his fingers. These were the words I used to build the other sculptures. I added a wall piece made up of the LFTE which, in English, can form the words “FELT” and “LEFT”, tenses of the verb “to feel” and “to let”, which add another layer of ambiguity to the whole.
Rui Sanches
Patrícia Garrido graduated in painting at the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes in Lisbon (ESBAL). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions which include: Mais Tempo, Menos História, Serralves Foundation, Porto (1996); O Império Contra-Ataca, Galeria ZDB, Lisbon (1998); Squatters, Galeria do CRUARB, Porto (2001). Solo exhibitions include: T1, Serralves Foundation, Porto (1998); Móveis ao Cubo, Desenhos ao Acaso, TREM Galeria Municipal de Arte, Faro (2009); Peças Mais ou Menos Recentes, EDP Foundation, Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis and Galeria Fernando Santos, Porto (2013).
The meaningful process of written language is different from that of visual “language”. Letters are shapes and also symbolic signs. They are consensually assigned a certain meaning, which allows them to be combined according to the grammatical rules in force, giving rise to words which, in turn, can be organized into more complex sentences and texts. Changes to the shape of letters may not interfere with their direct semantic meaning, but they do create different connotations that change their meaning.
I recently re-read Honoré Balzac’s wonderful novel “Le chef-d’oeuvre inconnu”, which is an inspiring meditation on the status of the work of art and the role of subjectivity in its realization. The painter Nicolas Poussin, who is one of the central characters in the episode narrated by Balzac, has always held a great fascination for me. In one of his major works entitled “The Shepherds of Arcadia”, the Latin motto Et in Arcadia Ego appears inscribed on a tomb. It was this elegiac phrase that I chose to work on, creating a sculptural form for each letter. Made of pine plywood, a “poor”, austere material, but with a visually effusive, pictorial surface, the letters are arranged on a shelf to form the intended phrase, presenting themselves to the viewer as three-dimensional objects that can be seen from various points of view.
The meaningful process of written language is different from that of visual “language”. Letters are shapes and also symbolic signs. They are consensually assigned a certain meaning, which allows them to be combined according to the grammatical rules in force, giving rise to words which, in turn, can be organized into more complex sentences and texts. Changes to the shape of letters may not interfere with their direct semantic meaning, but they do create different connotations that change their meaning.
I recently re-read Honoré Balzac’s wonderful novel “Le chef-d’oeuvre inconnu”, which is an inspiring meditation on the status of the work of art and the role of subjectivity in its realization. The painter Nicolas Poussin, who is one of the central characters in the episode narrated by Balzac, has always held a great fascination for me. In one of his major works entitled “The Shepherds of Arcadia”, the Latin motto Et in Arcadia Ego appears inscribed on a tomb. It was this elegiac phrase that I chose to work on, creating a sculptural form for each letter. Made of pine plywood, a “poor”, austere material, but with a visually effusive, pictorial surface, the letters are arranged on a shelf to form the intended phrase, presenting themselves to the viewer as three-dimensional objects that can be seen from various points of view.
Words are sometimes trivialized by their indiscriminate use. Words that express powerful meanings are often used for everything and nothing. An example of this is the frequency with which the verbs “love” and “hate” are thrown into conversation about the most insignificant things. The opposite of this mindless use is the appearance of these same verbs, in English, in the hands of the sinister protagonist of Charles Laughton’s “The Night of the Hunter”. Robert Mitchum, who plays the disturbing character, has the letters that form the words “LOVE” and “HATE” tattooed on each phalanx of his fingers. These were the words I used to build the other sculptures. I added a wall piece made up of the LFTE which, in English, can form the words “FELT” and “LEFT”, tenses of the verb “to feel” and “to let”, which add another layer of ambiguity to the whole.
Rui Sanches
Exhibition Views
Pedro Cabrita Reis in conversation with Miguel Nabinho
