Emmanuel Hervé, Paris
Nuno Sousa Vieira
Nuno Sousa Vieira was born in Leiria (Portugal), in 1971. He currently lives and works between Leiria and Lisbon (Portugal).
With a Masters Degree in Painting at Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa, he is a PhD candidate at the same school.
His work was recently presented in Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra with the exhibition Um Ateliê, Uma Fábrica, Uma Sala de Exposição Nem Sempre Por Esta Ordem. In 2010/2011, he held three important solo exhibitions: Somos nós que mudamos quando tomamos efetivamente conhecimento do outro, at Pavilhão Branco (Museu da Cidade) in Lisbon, Don’t underestimate the impact of the workplace, at Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange, United Kingdom, and Haben Gegenstände ein Gedächtnis?, at Hans Mayer Gallery, Germany. He has also presented a solo project at ARCO, Madrid, curated by Jacopo Crivelli Visconti. Other significant solo exhibitions are Wall Stop for This, Appleton Square, Lisbon, 2012; Terça-feira a Sábado – 11h às 20h, Galeria Graça Brandão, Lisbon, 2010; Chão Morto, Carpe Diem, Lisbon, 2009; To Draw an Escape Plan, Galeria Graça Brandão, Lisbon, 2009 and Redesenhar, Empty Cube, Lisbon, 2008.
In sculptures made out of an array of discarded factory materials and old office furniture, Nuno Sousa Vieira explores opposites: consumption and usefulness versus refuse and obsolescence; the mass-produced versus the handmade; function over form versus form over function. Sousa Vieira renders utilitarian materials useless, while referencing their former functions and investing them with new life as elegant sculptural works. In Próspero (2006), for example, he transforms two wooden stepladders, perilous to climb, into gently torqued sculptures of artfully composed vertical and horizontal lines.
His work is represented in several collections: PINTA – Latin America, CAV (Centro de Artes Visuais), Colecção Teixeira de Freitas, Colecção PLMJ, Colecção António Cachola, Câmara Municipal de Leiria, Colecção Paulo Pimenta, Colecção José Lima.