António Pedro Ferreira Marques

3. MATTER/SPACES, April 2009

“Matter/Spaces completes a series of three exhibitions of drawings by final year students from the College of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon which integrate the project ‘work in progress’, taking place at Drawing Spaces, Fábrica Braço de Prata, under the initiative of Teresa Carneiro and Luis Filipe Gomes in collaboration with the Drawing Department of FBAUL. 

Under the title Matter/Spaces, this exhibition contemplates drawings by five authors, Filipa Roque, Inês Teles, Joana Hamrol, Magda Delgado and Margarida Mateiro, who finished their degree in Fine Art during the past academic year. Departing from an exploration of various materials, we are invited to discover, in the heterogeneity of the presented forms, various attitudes that point towards multiple criteria for organizing the graphic discourse. In this way, the same space shares modes of register that go from burnt paper to the immediate manifestation of gesture in video support, passing also from drawings with earth to the explicit representation of external signs.

The common thread that links the exhibition is centered on the idea of transformation of matter, both from a physical and conceptual point of view, occurring very closely to the origins of drawing. The intervention in time, in the constructions of forms and in the simulation of the gesture, acknowledges nevertheless its main role on the affirmation of meaning. Thus, the oscillation between the intuitive character of the forms and the symbolic presence of gestures appear as a reflection of the cultural conflicts that mediate our everyday experiences.

The experimental character which underlies these works leaves in open the development of variations that, through drawing, allow the encounter with other languages. This might be the challenge of a promising look that this exhibition will awaken in us.” 

 

2. WRITING/SPACES, March 2009

“Following an initiative by Teresa Carneiro and Luís Filipe Gomes, organizers of the program “work in progress” at Drawing Spaces, the works by a group of final years students from the College of Fine Art, University of Lisbon, have been selected to be part of the second of a series of three drawing exhibitions, organized in collaboration with the Drawing Department of FBAUL. This exhibition will give visibility to works developed by these students during the past year. Writing/Spaces will show works by Ana Rita Pires, Inês Murta, Joana Pereira, Maria Henriques and Sara Bichão.

Departing from writing and from the gesture which is implied at its origin, these works reveal different attitudes and modes of expression which translate an introspective subtle reality charged with an accentuated symbolic character. The works which are here presented oscillate between explicit writing signs and the invented calligraphies of drawing.

The language which can be found present in these drawing does not replicate writing formulas, from which these works attempt to escape through a kind of pure gesturality that recreates itself in the processes of making. The textual transformation which is suggested by the ‘figures’ in these drawings, refer to the ineffable and to the subjectivity of sensible representation. The modes of registering assume either a more graphic or plastic character, oscillating between the works of graphite on paper, acrylic ink on wood, and the use of mixed techniques on various supports, such as the wall or styrofoam.

Thus this mode of writing in drawing is characterized in these works with singular intentionality and aesthetic unity through the dichotomy of the word - both as element of graphic expression and textual form - imaginary maps of satellite-cities, fragments of invisible spaces, hybrid structures of absent bodies, transparencies hidden within the logic of interaction between things, and intuitive alphabets that denounce the presence of new objects.

It is fair to underline once more the process based actions which have occurred methodologically throughout the academic formation of the artists, which is also indicative of a promising future in the development of their practices.”



1. MEMORY/SPACES, February 2009 

“Memory/Spaces is the first of a group of three exhibitions of final year students from FBAUL integrated in the series ‘work in progress’, an event taking place at Drawing Spaces, under the initiative of Teresa Carneiro and Luís Filipe Gomes in collaboration with the Drawing Department of FBAUL. 

This exhibition shows works by Amália Cardoso, Alexandra Mangorrinha Sousa, Filipa Burgo, Maria Sassetti and Matilde Corrêa Mendes. While contemplating the subject of memory, which gives origin to the theme of this exhibition, what stands out is a sense of multiple sights. Nevertheless, the heterogeneous character of the works presented does not prevent the recognition of a common thread which oscillates between the testimonies of a subjective memory and the echoes that the visual marks resonate on the observer. 

The kind of memory which is present in the space engendered by these drawings does not correspond to a virtuous memory of illusory representation, but exposes rather an encounter with a poetic and narrative memory that the writing of drawing makes possible. The traces here expressed integrate diversified modes of expression, from the graphite bar on paper to the video projection with overlaps, but including also object drawing and installation drawing. 

The spaces of memory here (re-)enacted are characterized by utopian constructions and urban mutations; passed generations reconstituted through scars and artifacts; sequences of waves that repeat themselves within an elementary mechanism; and undetermined forms which become suspended – these are all part of an unpredictable intentionality which, on the other hand, results in a surprising unity. 

Apart from the empathy that one might feel with the works presented, one has to account for the process based actions which have occurred methodologically throughout the academic progression of these students’ works and which anticipates a promising continuity.” 
 

CV
Born in Lisbon, 1953, António Pedro studied at Liceu Camões, from 1963 to 1970. António Pedro acquired his first reading habits and artistic cultural interests by the influence of Vergílio Ferreira, whose classes he attended for five consecutive years. After a brief passage through Law School (Lisbon), he enrolled with the Sculpture department at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts, and concluded his degree in 1977. During his academic studies he was influenced by the works of Lagoa Henriques, Matos Simões and Lima de Carvalho. After his pedagogic internship at Liceu D. João de Castro, António Pedro worked as a lecturer at Liceu Camões, and afterwards, at an effective lecturer at Liceu D. Dinis. In 1981 he started his academic career at ESBAL. Here he worked also as the coordinator of Erasmus and traveled throughout Europe where he established numerous contacts with art institutions, contributing to the development of a large network of mobility for the College. In 1991 his exams for the title of Professor Agregado at ESBAL were unanimously approved. In 1993 he was named Professor Auxiliar at FBAUL, where he has since been developing institutional, scientific and administrative functions. He is currently an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Drawing Disciplinary Group and coordinator of the Masters in Drawing at FBAUL. His academic work has been dedicated to the study of diagrammatic drawing and analogical, digital and sensory drawing. He has participated in numerous conferences and publication on the teaching of drawing, as well as solo and group exhibitions since 1978.