Conceição Abreu counts her work as a praxis space. She draws— in the interstices of textiles, sculpture, performance, photography, and video —, walk escapes and geographies. Her practice is structured by repetitive gestures and body movements, in a process that becomes almost meditative, but at the same time, it is open to new organizations. Far from the idea that the daily routine experience is monotony, the systematic repetition of her work has an aesthetic role of poetic virtue (poesie).
The repetitive movement establishes connections between the body and space, the interior and exterior, the present, and memory. In this practice, organized in tactile and kinesthetic haptic field relations acquires form and visibility through threads and lines. Elements that Conceição Abreu inscribes overlap and intertwine as drawings — objects and images that are understood as maps or residual trace of those connections that emerged from an experience of searching a sense of place.
Artist biography
Conceição Abreu, (Sintra, 1961). Visual artist and researcher. Lives and works in Lisbon. PhD in Plastic Arts from FBAUP (2018), Porto, Portugal. Master in Multimedia Art - Photography, from FBAUL (2012). Lisbon, Portugal. Graduated in 2010 (after completing her Bachelor's Degree in 1989) in Dance at the Escola Superior de Dança de Lisboa. Lisbon, Portugal. Individual Painting Project (2000) from Escola Ar.Co. Complete Painting Studies (1998) at Escola Ar.Co. Lisbon, Portugal. Exhibits regularly since 1999, being represented in several collections in Portugal and abroad.
Be Around
The word territory (lat. Territorium) means a defined area or land under specific jurisdiction. By definition, we can say that territory is a space in which particular relationships are established between species, cultures, political, economic, and social protocols. Depending on the processes of adoption, occupation, and transformation of that space, a territory will be natural or artificial, physical, or abstract.
Be around is a performance structured by movements, such as crossing and moving around a certain space. At the same time, it is a drawing practice, whose gestures and body movements are thinking as actions of interweaving between the subject and space. Physical and virtual, those movements have a quality of territorialization, deterritorialization, reterritorialization. Movements that re-organize those relationships of appropriation of space, or a loss of links with the same space, or the creation of a new approach.
Therefore, Be Around, as participative performance, is structured in movements of moving along and cross a particular space. A process that potentiates different interweaves subject /space — arrangements that will be materialized on the walls by drawing.
SOLO Exhibitions
2020 | BACKYARD. Arte Periférica Gallery. Lisbon. Portugal.
2019 | AMONG THE LINES. Lugar do Desenho. Júlio Resende Foundation, Sala 3 Hiscox, Porto. Portugal.
2018 | AT MY BACKYARD. FBAUP Museum, Porto. Portugal.
2016 | BE AROUND. Contextil 2016 (Contemporary Textile Art Biennial), invited artist. CAAA - Center for the Affairs of Art and Architecture, Guimarães. Portugal.
2013 | ADVÉRBIOS DE LUGAR. Plataforma Revólver, Lisbon. Portugal.
2013 | INSIDE OUT. Tivoli Hotel, Lisbon. Portugal.
2013 | ENTRETEMPOS. Caroline Pagès Gallery, Lisbon. Portugal.
2011 | ABSENCE (2). Museu da Imagem, Braga. Portugal.
2010 | ABSENCE. Sala do Veado, National Museum of Natural History, Lisbon. Portugal.
2009 | TIES. Diferença Gallery, Lisbon. Portugal.
2008 | ATTACHED. National Costume Museum, Lisbon.
2008 | ABRIGOS. Tapada das Necessidades, greenhouse. Lisbon. Portugal.
2007 | WITHIN. Caroline Pagès Gallery, Lisbon. Portugal.
2003 | JARDINS DE ÁGUA. Diferença Gallery, Lisbon. Portugal.
2002 | POR DEBAIXO DE UMA CEREJEIRA. Club 50-Associação Cultural, Lisbon. Portugal.
Collective Exhibitions
2019 |SONHOS E RACIOCÍNIOS. Pavilhão de Exposições. FBAUP, Porto. Portugal. Curad. by Paulo Luís de Almeida.
2019 | RESERVA IMAGINADA. Júlio Resende Foundation, Sala 3 Hiscox, Porto. Portugal. Curad. by Paulo Luís de Almeida.
2019 | 8 Portuguese Women Artist. Caroline Pagès Gallery, Lisboa. Portugal.
2018 | ARCO 2018. International Contemporary Art Fair, Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon. Portugal. Rep. Caroline Pagès Gallery, Lisbon. Portugal.
2018 | DE FILS OU DE FIBRE. Center d´Art Contemporain, Meymac. France.
2018 | VARIATIONS PORTUGAISE. Centre d´Art Contemporain, Meymac. France.
2018 | GAB-A. 12th edition of the Open Galleries of Fine Arts. FBAUL Lisbon. Portugal.
2017 | DA POP ART ÀS TRANSVANGUARDAS, Appropriation of Popular Art. Cerveira Biennial, Vila Nova de Cerveira. Portugal.
2017 | ENCONTRO INTERNACIONAL #16. ART: Artis intelligentia: IMAGINAR O REAL. FBAUP Museum, Porto. Portugal.
2017 | GAB-A - 11th edition of the Open Galleries of Fine Arts. FBAUL, Lisbon. Portugal.
2015 | (DES) HEMISFÉRIOS. Rectory of the University of Porto, Porto. Portugal. Curad. by Fernando José Pereira.
2015 | DE que estamos a falar? FBAUP Museum, Porto. Portugal.
2015 | 5:1 - FBAUP Museum, Porto. Portugal.
2014 | International Contest. Contextile 2014 (Contemporary Textile Art Biennial), Casa da Memória. Guimarães. Portugal.
2014 | NAS IMEDIAÇÕES DO DESENHO. Carlos Carvalho Gallery, Contemporary Art, Lisbon. Portugal.
2013 | 14TH INTERNATIONAL TAPESTRY TRIENNIAL. Central Museum of Textiles, Lódz. Poland.
2013 | DRAWING IN THE UNISERSITY TODAY. University of Porto, Porto. Portugal.
2013 | 6749/010.013. Plataforma Revolver, Lisbon. Portugal.
2013 | MARCO AURÉLIO AND FRIENDS - Sete Artistas Ulissiponenses. Plataforma Revolver, Lisbon. Portugal. Curad. António Pedro Mendes.
2012 | Concurso Internacional - Contextil 2012 (Contemporary Textile Art Biennial), Casa da Memória, Guimarães. Portugal.
2012 | Desviar o Olhar. Caroline Pagès Gallery. Lisbon. Portugal.
2011 | PIN ANONIMUM_Useless, Tangencial EXD'11. Lounging Space, Lisbon. Portugal.
2011 | [Re]visitações. Municipal Gallery of Montijo, Montijo. Portugal.
2011 | Espaço Arte - Centenário da Universidade de Lisboa. Rectory of the University of Lisbon, Lisbon. Portugal.
2010 | ARTISTS BOOKS. Diferença Gallery, Lisbon. Portugal.
2010 | ENCONTROS DA IMAGE. Braga, Portugal.
2010 | SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL. Caroline Pagès Gallery, Lisbon. Portugal.
2010 | CABINET D´AMATEUR. Sala do Veado, National Museum of Natural History, Lisbon. Portugal.
Awards
2016 | Best experimental short ... and around ... and around ... and around ... in collaboration with Carlos Coelho Costa. New Born Short Film Agency, 1st Edition, Berlin. Germany.
2008 | Photography acquisition award. I Montijo International Biennial, Montijo. Portugal.
2008 | Honorable Mention Video. I Montijo International Biennial, Montijo. Portugal.
