Pedro Cabrita Reis (PORTUGUESE, B. 1956)

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: amongst others, his work was shown at Documenta IX in Kassel and at the 24th São Paulo Biennial, as well as in Aperto 1995. In 2003 he represented Portugal at the Venice Biennial. 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 oeuvre 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. His solo exhibition Pedro Cabrita Reis was on view at de Appel in 1996.