Vasco Mourão works on the perception, texture and memory of the urban landscape. Only with a pen and time, his practice obsessively focuses on the representation of cities through drawings.
Inhabiting a place between fine art and illustration, Vasco Mourão creates bespoke artworks and large scale murals for various private collectors, galleries and institutions, while working also on selected editorial commissions. Originally from Portugal, now based in Barcelona (when not on the yearly work & travel walkabout).
Inhabiting a place between fine art and illustration, Vasco Mourão creates bespoke artworks and large scale murals for various private collectors, galleries and institutions, while working also on selected editorial commissions. Originally from Portugal, now based in Barcelona (when not on the yearly work & travel walkabout).
Selected Clients & Collaborators
Apple, The New Yorker, The New Yorker Festival, The Washington Post, Fundação Bissaya Barreto, Museu Picasso Barcelona, UnderDogs Gallery, Established & Sons, Architectural Review, Espacio 88, Ogilvy, Domus, Gestalten, El País, etc.
Apple, The New Yorker, The New Yorker Festival, The Washington Post, Fundação Bissaya Barreto, Museu Picasso Barcelona, UnderDogs Gallery, Established & Sons, Architectural Review, Espacio 88, Ogilvy, Domus, Gestalten, El País, etc.
Collections
Bissaya Barreto Foundation
Minho University
My Story Hotels
Artyzen Club HK
Various private collections
Bissaya Barreto Foundation
Minho University
My Story Hotels
Artyzen Club HK
Various private collections
Exhibitions
Soul of the City
Gallerie Porte B
6-7/2023 . Paris, France
No Man’s Land
Gallerie Porte B
10-11/2022 . Paris, France
Portuguese
Sovereign Art Prize
04-06/2022
Lisbon, Porto & Estremoz Portugal
ImageText
Mirus Gallery
11/202 . Denver, USA
Arquivo
Underdogs Gallery12/2021 . Lisbon, Portugal
Right Now - group show
Underdogs Gallery05/2020 . Online
Variations
Underdogs Gallery12/2020 . Lisbon, Portugal
Elipse
CONCRETA fair
10/2019 . Porto, Portugal
Vasco Mourão e Cassiano Branco
Júlio Dinis Museum2019 . Ovar, Portugal
Breathing Line
Fundació La Caixa
09.2019 . Barcelona, Spain
Remember Tokyo
Almost Perfect05/2019 . Tokyo, Japan
Remember Hong Kong
ACO gallery03/2019 . Hong Kong, China
Fragments . Drawings on Stone
Oitavo Gallery02/2019 . Porto, Portugal
Soul of the City
Gallerie Porte B
6-7/2023 . Paris, France
No Man’s Land
Gallerie Porte B
10-11/2022 . Paris, France
Portuguese
Sovereign Art Prize
04-06/2022
Lisbon, Porto & Estremoz Portugal
ImageText
Mirus Gallery
11/202 . Denver, USA
Arquivo
Underdogs Gallery12/2021 . Lisbon, Portugal
Right Now - group show
Underdogs Gallery05/2020 . Online
Variations
Underdogs Gallery12/2020 . Lisbon, Portugal
Elipse
CONCRETA fair
10/2019 . Porto, Portugal
Vasco Mourão e Cassiano Branco
Júlio Dinis Museum2019 . Ovar, Portugal
Breathing Line
Fundació La Caixa
09.2019 . Barcelona, Spain
Remember Tokyo
Almost Perfect05/2019 . Tokyo, Japan
Remember Hong Kong
ACO gallery03/2019 . Hong Kong, China
Fragments . Drawings on Stone
Oitavo Gallery02/2019 . Porto, Portugal
Face Plastic
Espacio 88
01/2019 . Barcelona, Spain
Ouroborus . Drawings on Wood
Uivo 8 - Centr'Arte 01/ 2019 . Matosinhos, Portugal
Portugal Múltiplo
Bissaya Barreto Foundation2018 . Coimbra, Portugal
Urban Fragments
Ilustração à vista Festival 2018 . Ílhavo, Portugal
Ouroborus . Drawings on Brass
Underdogs Art Store 2017 . Lisbon, Portugal
Ouroborus . Drawings on Wood
Espacio 882016 . Barcelona, Spain
Matsudo Perceptions
Paradise AIR2016 . Matsudo, Japan
Drawing Poble Nou
Espacio 882015 . Barcelona, Spain
New York Perceptions
The Invisible Dog 2014 . New York, USA
Drawings for The New Yorker
Mitte Gallery2014 . Barcelona, Spain
Daily Drawings
Minho University2010 . Guimarães, Portugal
Obsession
Casa Portuguesa2008 . Barcelona, Spain
Selected talks
PechaKucha 2019 . Tokyo, Japan
TheCreativeFest
2017 . Barcelona, Spain
PechaKucha 2016 . Tokyo, Japan
Apple Headquarters2016 . Tokyo, Japan
Apple Stores2016 . Tokyo, Osaka & Nagoya, Japan
Walk&Talk Art Festival 2015 . Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Get Set Festival2015 . Oporto, Portugal
Barcelona Design Week 2013 . Barcelona, Spain
Creative Camp 1802012 . Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal
PechaKucha 2019 . Tokyo, Japan
TheCreativeFest
2017 . Barcelona, Spain
PechaKucha 2016 . Tokyo, Japan
Apple Headquarters2016 . Tokyo, Japan
Apple Stores2016 . Tokyo, Osaka & Nagoya, Japan
Walk&Talk Art Festival 2015 . Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Get Set Festival2015 . Oporto, Portugal
Barcelona Design Week 2013 . Barcelona, Spain
Creative Camp 1802012 . Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal
Selected Press
O Editorial, O Observador, Form Finding Lab Princeton , Urbansetters, Creative Mornings, Público, Shift, Formagramma, 180 ID , Architectural Review, Público, SwissMiss, ArchDaily, Domus magazine, Colossal, My Modern Met, Fubiz, DesignBoom, Ignant, SuperSonic Art
Publications
Beyond Architecture by R. Klanten, L. Feireiss
Gestalten
The Ultimate Skyscraperby Carlos Teixeira
C/Arte
Illusive - Contemporary Illustrationby R. Klanten & J.O’Reilly
Gestalten
O Editorial, O Observador, Form Finding Lab Princeton , Urbansetters, Creative Mornings, Público, Shift, Formagramma, 180 ID , Architectural Review, Público, SwissMiss, ArchDaily, Domus magazine, Colossal, My Modern Met, Fubiz, DesignBoom, Ignant, SuperSonic Art
Publications
Beyond Architecture by R. Klanten, L. Feireiss
Gestalten
The Ultimate Skyscraperby Carlos Teixeira
C/Arte
Illusive - Contemporary Illustrationby R. Klanten & J.O’Reilly
Gestalten
The Visible Cities
by Jorge CarriónThe artist Vasco Mourão comes from the world of architecture and travels. This double genealogy brings him closer to those who imagined and designed the iconic buildings of the world as well to those who described it in their books, sketches or photographs.
But Vasco’s work does not focus on the detail but rather to the whole. From his point of view what matters most is not the architecture per se but the urban landscape, not so much the singular route but rather the labyrinth of networks weaved by the traveler or the driver when circulating in the contemporary metropolis.
Because the greater narrative and conceptual theme of Vasco’s work is the city. The urban landscape as multiplication and as a succession of mirrors. Although a drawing may speak of New York, Lisbon, Tokyo or Barcelona, in a simultaneous and inclusive plane it is also representing the invisible cities of Italo Calvino.
Like those of the Italian writer, the ones drawn by the Portuguese artist are made of illusion (optical and sentimental) and desire (of possession and order), counting on a memory shared by all human beings.
But Vasco’s work does not focus on the detail but rather to the whole. From his point of view what matters most is not the architecture per se but the urban landscape, not so much the singular route but rather the labyrinth of networks weaved by the traveler or the driver when circulating in the contemporary metropolis.
Because the greater narrative and conceptual theme of Vasco’s work is the city. The urban landscape as multiplication and as a succession of mirrors. Although a drawing may speak of New York, Lisbon, Tokyo or Barcelona, in a simultaneous and inclusive plane it is also representing the invisible cities of Italo Calvino.
Like those of the Italian writer, the ones drawn by the Portuguese artist are made of illusion (optical and sentimental) and desire (of possession and order), counting on a memory shared by all human beings.
The city as transversal home, as a shared horizon. The city also as geometry, pattern and infinite combinations.No matter where you live you’ll recognise aspects of your own city in these visible cities in black and white.
The medium where Vasco draws on are also in tune with the urban history. On paper refers to the labor of recollection of data and events; on wood it connects the rural with the urban space, it recalls the beam that supports the building and the everyday furniture, work and rest: on metal is present the modern metropolis, its iron architecture, its infatuation with precious metals to underline luxury and stainless steel to claim technological advances.
These materials are superimposed on the stone of a wall. Because his work is always mural. A second skin that covers the epidermis of the cities of the world that he, obsessively, is copying, imagining, collecting.
The medium where Vasco draws on are also in tune with the urban history. On paper refers to the labor of recollection of data and events; on wood it connects the rural with the urban space, it recalls the beam that supports the building and the everyday furniture, work and rest: on metal is present the modern metropolis, its iron architecture, its infatuation with precious metals to underline luxury and stainless steel to claim technological advances.
These materials are superimposed on the stone of a wall. Because his work is always mural. A second skin that covers the epidermis of the cities of the world that he, obsessively, is copying, imagining, collecting.