Residency at The Arts House Aveiro 2023
From late January to early March 2023 I spent 5 weeks on a great residency at The Arts House Aveiro, Portugal (about 45 mins south of Oporto), which was facilitated by a grant from a local fund in South Wales. During that time the vibrant colours of the buildings and boats (Aveiro is known as the Venice of Portugal) and the atmosphere of the coastal location by the Atlantic greatly influenced my working process.
A random building in Aveiro typical of the bright colours there.
I started off responding to the local environment in pastel, then after a conversation with the curator Tiago at the Gulbenkian Foundation space in the city, I settled on spending three weeks making a series of portraits of the people I met there. Mainly a music school supported by the prestigious cultural foundation, the exhibition space where I held the culminating show (below), was an auditorium where intermittent yet regular contemporary art shows are held.
Work in situ at The Gulbenkian Foundation space Aveiro.
My room at the Arts House, Aveiro.
The Arts House, (known as VIC) is the former home of a now deceased, renowned local artist Vacso Branco who made a prolific body of ceramic work and experimental films covertly under the Salazaar regime. The political films were shared with like minded intellectuals and dissenters in a clandestine cinema in the basement, which still functions for concerts and events today. The artist’s grandson, an electronic musician and DJ Hugo runs the space now, and I was informed that it remains an oasis of alternative thought in an otherwise culturally conventional small city.
Although most of my time was focused on work, I made trips to Porto and Lisbon and to the beach. One painting I made was of the fashion model for menswear brand La Paz. Founded by former marketing communications people, La Paz use a pal they’ve met, a local fisherman, for all their photoshoots, to stand out and give the company authentic credo. Having visited the beach in nearby Costa Nova and realised how particularly distinct the Atlantic coastline feels with a strong wind, I felt it would be cool to make a picture of this character on the beach and then approach the brand to exchange the picture for some apparel, which I duly did. My work is now is an international private collection of an established brand!
Photograph of work taken at the La Paz store, Lisbon.
Aveiro is not known for it’s arts scene, but there is, as I discovered, a large student population and consequently a strong experimental music scene there. It was interesting to attend a few concerts and this part of Portugal is well worth a visit. (I include below some further pictures). The calm of a small city was conducive to focusing on my practice and making a lot of work in a short timeframe.
Concert given by a Spanish duo at the University of Aveiro’s space.
Studio setup, The Arts House Aveiro (Known as Vic).
Install of work by curator Tiago Margaca.
A photo from a day trip I took to Porto to stock up on some much needed art materials. It’s a city with some good galleries.
From an exhibition by British artist Richie Culver at Nuno Centeno Gallery in Porto.
Also, I managed to visit the residency space Pada Studios in Barreiro during my trip to Lisbon where I had a good chat with its founder Tim.