Biography

Pedro Cabrita Reis was born in Lisbon in 1956. Having received wide international recognition, his work is crucial for the understanding of the new paradigm in sculpture that has come about since the middle of the 1980s. He has participated in many important international exhibitions: among others, his work was shown at Documenta IX in Kassel and at the 24th São Paulo Biennale, as well as in Aperto 1995. In 2003 he represented Portugal at the Venice Biennale. Since then his work has been featured in many museum exhibitions such as FRAC Bourgogne in Dijon, Kunsthalle Bern, Camden Arts Centre in London, Macro in Rome, Kunsthaus Graz and Fondazione Merz in Turin. His complex œuvre is marked by a highly individualized philosophical and poetic discourse, and encompasses a variety of media: painting, sculpture and site-specific installations composed of found and manufactured objects. Using simple materials, Cabrita Reis recycles through constructive processes, almost anonymous memories of primordial gestures and actions that we repeat every day. His works touch on issues of space, architecture and memory, with a suggestive power of association that goes beyond the visual to a metaphorical level.

The complex diversity of the theoretical and formal works proposed to us by Pedro Cabrita Reis departs from an anthropological reflection in total opposition to the reductionism of a sociological discourse. Indeed, the work of Pedro Cabrita Reis is based upon silences and questions.

Lives and works in Lisbon