WHO gallery PATIENCE, CONCENTRATION, LOVE LUCAS ALMEIDA 07.07 09.03’11 >> OPENING: JUL 7, 6PM - 9PM ‘Ninfa 2008’* wine will be served, from Sociedade Agrícola João Teodósio M. Barbosa & Filhos. PATIENCE, CONCENTRATION, LOVE The exhibition ‘Patience, Concentration, Love’, by Lucas Almeida, opening on July 7th 2011 at WHO Gallery, Bairro Alto, will reflect the artist’s course before, during and after completing an internship at Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, in New York (2009-2010). Designated by the artist as the essential ingredients for his artistic production, ‘Patience, Concentration, Love’ will be composed by silkscreen works, etchings and drawings, revealing a contemplative but also humorous spirit, given the artist’s strong connection to comics. Of a delicate and thorough trace, the works portray almost dreamlike, imagined worlds, composed by image sequences that give place to infinite narratives, where figures emerge from forms, forms emerge from figures. LUCAS ALMEIDA Lucas Almeida (b. 1981) obtained a degree in Fine Arts from Escola Superior de Arte e Design, Caldas da Rainha (2005), and in 2010 finished the INOV-ART internship at Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, in New York. Among the most recent exhibitions in which the artist has participated, one highlights: ‘Heads up’ (group show), Kathy Caraccio Printing Studio, New York; ‘Print Saloon’ (group show), ‘The Mews Project Space’, London (2010); ‘Perpetuamente Novo’ (solo exhibition), Galeria Municipal de Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal (2009). In 2006 he was distinguished with the Prémio Jovens Criadores (Young Creators Prize) in the Comics category, having also participated in the São Paulo International Short Film Festival and in 2005 in the Short Ends Film Festival, London. Back in Portugal, the artist continues his production of silkscreen books and the publication of his own comics book ‘O Hábito faz o Monstro’ (‘The Habit Makes the Monster’) - that already has ten years of existence -, is developing a hand-drawn animated film, and aims to return to New York to complete a Masters degree in Drawing. AWARDS: 2009 - INOV-ART grant, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop internship, New York 2006 - Prémio Jovens Criadores (Young Creators Prize) - Comics category *ABOUT NINFA 2008, Sociedade Agrícola João Teodósio M. Barbosa & Filhos: With the Serra dos Candeeiros slope as a background, Ninfa wine is the product of a harvest among friends. The grapes are produced under a regime of integrated production, with special attention to the environment, and harvested by family and friends in order for the consumer to receive a unique and special product. Of a lively ruby color and with berry aromas and touches of mint, it has a balanced after-taste that accompanies very well soft rind cheeses and bread and garlic game sausages. WHO gallery Rua Luz Soriano, 71 - Bairro Alto 1200-246 Lisboa - Portugal www.galeria.who.pt www.who.pt Schedule: Tue to Fri 10am-7pm | Sat 3pm-7pm Or by appointment: T. +351 21 324 27 60 Support: Be responsible. Drink with moderation. WHO gallery PATIENCE, CONCENTRATION, LOVE LUCAS ALMEIDA 07.07 09.03’11 >> “ This work emerged following a trip to New York, after having completed an internship at a printmaking techniques studio, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, when I had the opportunity to return and work there as an artist, instead of an intern. It occurred to me to surprise the people with whom I had worked with and had befriended. When I arrived, they had saved a pile of paper and copper, scraps from the printshop since they had noticed my course as an intern, as a gleaner of scraps of 200 gram pure cotton paper, long paper strips sometimes 4 inches wide, destined to be trash. These served to build a book I entitled ‘Pocket Sea’, and it consists of a series of watercolors where I painted the sea from memory. It helped me soothe the longing I felt for Portugal and for the sea, as I travelled daily to the center of Manhattan, by subway. Having the care to save all those scraps for me to re-utilize, left me with a need to reciprocate the gesture. Back in America and having to deal with the dollar again, lead me to draw a bill. One of the copper strips, so kindly given to me by my colleagues, had the exact width of a dollar bill. As I prepared the plate, I thought about what is truly valuable and strictly necessary to artistic creation and production, specially in the etching and lithography territory. I concluded: patience, concentration and love. These are the principal elements to execute whichever creative activity. I entitled the bill ‘Bill of Wisdom’, for as I prepared the support for the work, it became clear that money, besides its symbolic value, is empty of content. The experience of technical and creative processes, and the simple need to create, are far more rewarding; they allow one to learn, to give, to receive and ” to be surprised through the process. Lucas Almeida, 2011 Author’s copy, silkscreen print of the work ‘Bill of Wisdom’, 2011. WHO gallery Rua Luz Soriano, 71 - Bairro Alto 1200-246 Lisboa - Portugal www.galeria.who.pt www.who.pt Schedule: Tue to Fri 10am-7pm | Sat 3pm-7pm Or by appointment: T. +351 21 324 27 60 For more informations: Aviva Obst/ [email protected] T. +351 91 252 86 79 WHO agency & gallery ABOUT WHO galLerY WHO, a pioneer Creative Talents Agency in Portugal and with about 12 years of experience as a creatives agent, initiated a new cycle in 2009 by expanding its brand to WHO gallery, an autonomous space, whose mission reflects on the construction of a permanent dialogue between the creative community and the public. A space open to dialogue, experimentation, differentiation, reflection, trends and knowledge. The artists WHO gallery receives accuse a strong creative pulse in Illustration, Photography, Fashion, Media, Visual Arts, Design, Fine Arts and Creative Writing. The space aims to represent the multiple forms each one of these categories may assume through an annual exhibition calendar, marked by the exhibition of emerging and established artists, in a direct and indirect confrontation, reflecting the best creative and innovative work done in Portugal, and beyond. April 2010 WHO received the 1st ‘Meios & Publicidade’ (Mediums & Publicity) Design Prize in the category of Self-promotion. This prize concedes to WHO Agency the recognition of WHO gallery as a place of promotion of that which is WHO’s mission - to promote a network of talents transversal to the arts. EXHIBITIONS 64-BITS [june’11] Sim by S amsung A ndré Sier / fine arts / intermedia supported by BLIND DATE [april’11] a colaboration w/ moda L isboa Group show/ visual arts / illustration MOSTRA ÚNIQA [february’11] INPRESS [march’10] Hélder Oliveira / editorial illustration UNDER 50€ - Selected by Dino Alves [december’09] Dino A lves / design / fashion + installation DUB Lab [october’09] DubVideo Connection / interactive media ÚniQ a academy/ visual arts / illustration ART DOENS´T CHANGE ANYTHING, YOU DO [july’09] P edro L ino / animation + illustration ESCALPE [december’10] P edro Z amith / visual arts / illustration IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD [june’09] NON DOMINS [september’10] P edro Valdez Cardoso / fine arts / sculpture (w/ colaboration of P edro S oares Neves /Uber) S ofia Vilarinho / design /fashion Sílvia P rudêncio / design / graphic P edro M aia / fine arts / media Nuno Neto / illustration / collage M ário A mbrózio / fine arts / photography for delta NEW MIRROR ILLUSTRATION [may’10] Luís Dourado / illustration / collage M aria Bicas P ereira / fine arts / sculpture Mónica S antos / animation + illustration Rithika Merchant/ contemporary illustration Rosa Baptista / illustration + intervention X avier A lmeida / illustration + installation WHO gallery Rua Luz Soriano, 71 - Bairro Alto 1200-246 Lisboa - Portugal www.galeria.who.pt www.who.pt for absolut Schedule: Tue to Fri 10am-7pm | Sat 3pm-7pm Or by appointment: T. +351 21 324 27 60 For more informations: Aviva Obst/ [email protected] T. +351 91 252 86 79