Tiago Mestre Portugal, b. 1978

Lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil

 

Lives and works in São Paulo, Brasil. In 2001, he graduated from the Architecture program at the Lisbon School of Architecture. In 2008, he integrated the MAUMAUS Independent Visual Art Studies Program and, in 2009, the Ar.co Advanced Course in Painting (Lisbon, Portugal). In 2016, he held a Master's degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo (FAU-USP).

 

Living in São Paulo for about twelve years, he developed his work between painting, sculpture, and installation, mediums through which he explores his initial training in architecture incorporated into the languages of contemporary art. Complementary to his training, he has held residencies in Brazilian and international institutions, such as Gasworks, with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship (London, 2019), Kaaysá – Art Residency (Boiçucanga, 2018), and PIVÔ-Arte e Pesquisa (São Paulo, 2016).

 

In 2014, he conducted the project All the things you are, presented at the Kunsthalle São Paulo. For 21 days, he frequented the exhibition space and built successive sculptures from the same material – clay – in a process shared in real time with the public. His poetics is underlined by the editing of the work in the presentation spaces, which often take on the contours of his studio practice. Using materials such as clay, bronze, plaster, and paint, his work is a constant negotiation between the planned and the circumstantial, between a programmatic and spontaneous action. This primordial tension inscribes the way Tiago Mestre approaches different techniques and languages.

 

Among his recent exhibitions are the solo shows Empire, at LAMB Gallery (London, 2022), Smoke gets in your eyes, at Kupfer Projects (London, 2019) and Noite. Inextinguível, inexprimível noite., at Galeria Millan (São Paulo, 2017); and the group shows Pequenas pinturas [Small paintings], at auroras, and Uma mão lava a outra [One hand washes the other], at Olhão (São Paulo, 2022) and Jardim das delícias. Juízo final, at Galeria Cavalo (Rio de Janeiro, 2018).