André Almeida e Sousa
“The composition is made on top of what has already been seen, on top of the blank canvas that is not empty at all. The same is true of drawing, and indeed the same is true of writing. It is the repeated expression that “everything has already been done” and, therefore, the confirmation of the presence of inheritance.” *
Combining painting, drawing, bas-reliefs, and texts, André Almeida e Sousa´s work leads us into an infinite territory where dreamed architectures, back or fugitive bodies, and everyday objects seem to match like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, where empty and full silently converse together.
Among his abundant production, sometimes letting out kinds of erect members, are Andre´s roughly geometric sculpture-objects. They are full shapes floating on blank walls, virtually superimposing on the ones he paints in a negative on paper or canvas.
The paintings´ primordial layers are thus revealed. What is underneath, consumed, is essential, a yesterday emphasized by the artist´s evanescent silhouettes and his persistent use of dark and smoky colors. It is about the past becoming present, absence becoming presence.
Born in 1974 in São Miguel (Açores), André Almeida e Sousa studied at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and in the advanced course of fine arts at Ar.Co school in Lisbon. He was a Scholarship holder of Fundação Victor e Graça Carmona e Costa in 2001. He lives and works in Lisbon.
A dynamic contributor to the Portugal art scene, André has taught art since 2002 and is currently running with Patricia Sasportes A BASE Escola de Arte.
He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Portugal and abroad, including Arquipelago-Centro de Artes, Ribeira Grande (Açores), Istituto Centrale Per La Grafica, Roma (Italy), Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado, Lisbon.
André Almeida e Sousa´s artworks are part of Coleção Ariane Rothschild; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian; Coleção Graça Carmona e Costa; Coleção do Governo Regional dos Açores, Acervo ARTCA; Câmara Municipal de Ponta Delgada; A BASE Escola de Arte; Ar.Co. Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual; Biblioteca da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian em Ponte Sôr; Coleção Figueiredo Ribeiro.
*André Almeida e Sousa, Interview with Vitor Teves
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