Main Partner
Alberto Carneiro (1937, São Mamede de Coronado – 2017, Porto) introduced in Portugal an understanding of the practice of sculpture as inseparable from a deep connection with nature and the land. After an 11-year apprenticeship at a saint-making workshop and studying sculpture at the ESBAP in Porto, he moved to London, where he attended the Saint Martin’s School of Art. Back in Portugal, he started producing work by gleaning and interacting with nature. In the following decades, his practice would expand to include a wide range of works, from sculptures and installations, often produced with elements appropriated from the environment, such as tree trunks or straws, to drawings and photographic recording of performances and actions in the land. Operação estética no Alto de São João (Aregos) (Aesthetic operation in the Alto de São João, Aregos,1974–75) is one of the most iconic examples of the latter, resulting from one of the several performances realized in the 1970s. As explained in his Notes toward a Manifesto of Ecological Art (1968–73), these actions sought to establish an aesthetical relation with the land.
Nature has been dreaming in my eyes since childhood. How many times have I fallen asleep among the grasses? My first house was on top of the cherry tree that is now a sculpture.
Enjoy a video presentation of the work of Alberto Carneiro (artist) by Jorge Viegas (gallerist) - Language: ENG - SUB ITA
Video produced for the inauguration of the Alberto Carneiro Art Center on November 27, 2021 (Santo Tirso, Portugal). - Language: PT - SUB ENG
Alberto Carneiro's piece "O canavial: memória-metamorfose de um corpo ausente", from 1968, is taken as the axis around which a narrative is built that superimposes the daily rhythms of the artist's life onto his work and, ultimately, makes the man indistinguishable from the sculptor. - Language: PT
A focus on the artist’s practice in the words of James Steele, Gallerist - 3+1 Arte Contemporânea (Language: ENG)