Madragoa, Lisbon
For its participation in ART-O-RAMA 2018, Madragoa presents a solo project by Goncalo Preto, where new works especially commissioned for the occasion are presented.
The project takes full advantage of the unique possibilities offered by the fair format in terms of layout, by asking the artist to design his own booth in relation to the project.
Goncalo Preto’s practice is rooted in the use of traditional techniques of painting and drawing to depict through its figurative vocabulary scenes that are always evidently uncanny, or build up a tension within themselves. The subjects can often come from found images that are decontextualized and then become part of fictional narratives, or as well can be only reworked through pictorial techniques and suggest different meanings, as something that is seen through a magnifying glass. For example, the artist most recent series of paintings either depict a fictional dog and the places that he might have seen with his eyes, or have as a subject the preserved head of the first serial killer of Portugal, seen through a different perspective.
The new project represents a new experimentation for the artist, that is also able to create a physical space to host the different works.