Street art in Porto

Art for free

Last saturday, 5, in the street Miguel Bombarda, Porto, right in the midle of art gallery district, I saw this painting on a wall by Alexandre Rola. I saw it at around four pm and read the label saying it was for free. I didn´t take it down right away. Some two hours latter (and hundreds of people passing by) it was still there and I decided to bring it home. Thank you Mr. Rola!

Arte Conceptuale Bruta-2

Another project for a radical conceptual exhibition.
The same artist as in the post below anounces an exhibition of his paintings. The guests arriving at the much antecipated opening notice that what is shown on the walls are not paintings but photographs, and they say it to the artist. The artists inicialy denies, but, as the protests mount, eventualy cofesses that those are realy photographs. Things calm down and the public enjoys the art, sipping wine and eating the hors-d´ouvres that were laced with small amounts of castor oil. Cameras placed in the gallery and outside, film as the first guests start to feel the simptoms of constipation and shitting themselves in their pants and dresses.
The artist tries to sell the video to Tate Modern, MOMA, and some other museums of modern art.

Arte Conceptuale Bruta-1

Project for a radical conceptual exhibition.
An artists anounces an exhibition of photographs. On the opening day, people notice those are not photographs on the walls, but paintings, and try to elucidate the mistake. The artist insists, against all evidences and against everybody, that those are realy photographs, not paintings. A big discussion begins with shouts and insults. Eventualy everybody leaves and the exhibition is removed. The artist will mention that exhibition in his curriculum as "photographs". The few people who´ll bother to desagree will only have some inconclusive photos and films, made in the opening night, to suport their claims. It will forever be considered an exhibition of photographs.

Henrique Oliveira

Sculptures and paintings by the brasilian artist Henrique Oliveira. Amazing.

Street art in Covilhã

Lots of recent activity in this town, streetartwise, due to this guys:



VHILS embelished a wall:






There was a german tv crew making a "Making of" film:




Beautiful tiles by Diogo Machado. From a distance they look like tradicional portuguese tiles, but looking closer they show interesting new motives. Click to enlarge:





These walls, painted gold and blue, are near a barroque church:

Discurso de Leonard Cohen en la entrega de los Premios Príncipe de Asturias

Steve Jobs meets St. Peter

This ilustration is beautiful:

I was featured in this book

I like how my paintings look in a book.

Barroca do Zêzere

Last Saturday I went for a walk along the river Zêzere, passing near some big mines where they extract mostly wolframite. Big heaps:





Some chemical reactions in the stones form this beautifull paterns. This is unintended landscape art. Click to enlarge:





Near Barroca do Zêzere we went to see this petroglyphs. Notice the head, neck and front leg of an horse on top, and another head bellow. The hand is pointig to the head of the first horse:





Ten thousand years and one day later, the following Sunday, the portuguese street artist VHILS and his crew started carving this face in a wall, in Covilhã. (I´ll post more photos soon):

Algarve Gin Tonic

Now, witness the birth of a classic!
You saw it first here!
A couple of years ago portuguese authorities launched a campain to promote Algarve as a tourist destination for english speaking folks, they anglicizing the name of the province to "Allgarve".
To name this variation of gin tonic I invented, I also decided to anglicize a name of a town in Algarve, called Almancil.
So, this Gin Tonic is called ALLMENSILLY !!!!
It´s a simple recipy. You just add carob flour to your usual gin tonic, and it tastes delicious!
The ingredients:



Mix a small spoon of carob flour with ice.

Add gin and stir.

Add the tonic.

You should try this at home.

A walk down art gallery lane, in Porto

In Porto I found this new art gallery, anémona, showing this beautiful pieces by the young brasilian artist Marta Emília. She glues small pieces of painted paper to get this intricate, some organic and some geometric, paterns. The titles of the collages come from the lyrics of brasilian songs.









I particularly like this one titled "Brocal Dourado". It is detailed like an embroidery or a lace and it also reminds me of those colorfull underwater scenes from the coral reefs. Excelent.





In Galeria Presença, I saw this amazing sculptures by Pedro Valdez Cardoso. I like the clash between tribal art and the luxury fabrics (and not so luxury stuff like dusters and pins):











In the same gallery there was this piece by Alexandre Farto:

Works made by João Leonardo with cigarette butts he collected during a stay in Germany, from April 2010 to May 2011:






Some street art: