Pedro Cabrita Reis

Pedro Cabrita Reis was born 1956 in Lisbon where he lives and works.

Cabrita Reis is one of Portugal’s best-known artists and his complex oeuvre includes very disparate media, from the painted over pencil and pastel drawings, the large-scale painting, via sculptural works to site specific installations that can reach architectural dimensions. At the same time the individual media flow into one another in Cabrita Reis’ work without losing their particular character. Sculptures become images; when hung on the window, paintings articulated as monochrome areas of colour can recall an archetypal element of architecture or develop sculptural qualities. And photographs that appear in the installations can open endless spaces of memory and reflection. If at all, ‘nature’ appears in his work in images such as these and then only in an extremely filtered way, as a space for thought. The loss of nature as a reference point could be described as a motivating force in Cabrita Reis’ work.

Portrait: PCRStudio / João Ferrand.