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Lourenço de Castro
Born 1972
Lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal
http://sites.google.com/site/portfoliolourencodecastro
http://www.re-title.com/artists/lourenco-decastro.asp
Lourenço de Castro's practice has recently explored several directions relating Right: Coming from the wall, 2013,
to painting as an expanded fi eld, and with the construction and development Oil on wood,
of expositive devices considers installations linking painting and sculpture h: 54cm w: 66cm d: 12cm, Private Collection.
where there is special attention to architectural space that welcomes them. In Below: Cropping of the space, 2013,
sculpture, he is interested in the material’s character, as a body that occupies Oil on wood,
space and has an infi nite potential for transfi guration, and on its ability to h: 61cm w: 59cm d: 51cm, Artist’s Collection.
render palpable and evident pictorial relationships that are suggested of a Below right: Memory of a painting, 2013,
two-dimensional manner through drawings and paintings. The way in which the Oil on cotton,
work takes shape is through the relationship of matter with the several essential h: 174cm w: 95cm d: 85cm, Artist’s Collection.
elements that defi ne a space, ie fl oor, ceiling and walls and also through relations Far right (top and bottom): Double painting, 2013,
of limit, suspension and prolongation. This might take the form of ideas such as a Oil on cardboard,
horizontal plane that welcomes a suspension and blocks a downward motion, h: 68cm w: 72cm d: 180cm, Artist’s Collection.
or the elevation of something material in relation to the fl oor toward the ceiling.
Or the work itself might refer directly to a structural element of architecture (e.g.
a column, pillar), or suggest a different perception of the space.
From his background in architecture he explores an awareness and a sensitization
to the space itself, its occupation and experience by the viewer. This awareness
is gaining relevance in his work, becoming more evident in his recent exhibition
entitled “A body in a space”, at the Monumental Gallery in Lisbon, in which the
elements that made up the two installations were intrinsically linked to space
and were conceived and designed in terms of scale and plastic form for this
purpose, having as reference, two key works of architectural history. The fi rst,
the Medici Chapel in Florence by Michelangelo, and the second the Church
of Saint Charles at the Four Fountains in Rome by Borromini, both of which are
outstanding examples of a unity between various artistic mediums and also in
how the various formal and plastics elements are combined to create a total
and dynamic space in the articulation between interior and exterior.

LOURENÇO DE CASTRO graduated from the Advanced Course in Visual Arts at AR.CO
(an Independant Art School) in 2002 and has since gone on to participate in a number of
group exhibitions and solo projects, these include; “Line, Stain, Plan” (installation, sculpture,
drawing), Nogueira da Silva Museum, Braga (2014), TIAF London, The Rag Factory, London
(2014), “Art Today”, National Society of Fine Arts, Lisbon (2014), “A body in a space”,
(installation, painting, sculpture), Galeria Monumental, Lisbon (2013), Concinnitas, National
Museum of Natural History and Science – Sala do Veado, Lisbon, Portugal (2012), Still Life,
Galeria Monumental, Lisbon, Portugal (2011), Roving Shadows, MNHN – Sala do Veado,
Lisbon, Portugal (2009), From Matter, Fábrica do Braço de Prata, Lisbon, Portugal (2008),
While appropraition, Arquivo 237, Lisbon, Portugal (2013), Cabinet d'Amateur, MNHN – Sala
do Veado, Lisbon, Portugal (2010) and On Europe - 1st Biennial Montijo – IX Award Vespeira,
Montijo, Portugal. In 2002 de Castro received an Honourable Mention in the 7th Young
Painters Fidelity Prize at Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal.

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