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Hong Kong Faces

Drawings on stone


A overlay of HK’s urbanscapes with the faces of strangers I’ve encounter on the streets of the city. A reversed archeological artefact with different layers of ink, charcoal and gold foil on the broken stone slabs.

This work was part of a solo show at Port B gallery in Paris.












Hong Kong faces I, 2023
Ink, charcoal and gold foil on broken marble slabs

55 x 55 cm - 21 x 21 in


Available at Porte B. Gallery ︎︎︎






Hong Kong faces II, 2023
Ink, charcoal and gold foil on broken marble slabs

55 x 55 cm - 21 x 21 in


Available at Porte B. Gallery ︎︎︎






Hong Kong faces III, 2023
Ink, charcoal and gold foil on broken marble slabs

55 x 55 cm - 21 x 21 in


Available at Porte B. Gallery ︎︎︎


Tokyo Flow

Drawings on metal


Part of an ongoing series of artworks based on my personal recollections of Tokyo’s urban scape. Knitting together fragments of the urban texture and details of the city.

This work was part of a solo show at Port B gallery in Paris.






Tokyo Flow, 2023
Ink on galvanized steel
140 x 130 cm



Available at Porte B. Gallery ︎︎︎



From the neons signs, stairways and facades of the Shinjuku neighbourhood, there’s also a small homage to the now defunct Nagakin capsule tower.




New York Strip

Drawings on paper


A long view of an imaginary Manhattan skyline, so long that the perspective start to distort and deform the featured buildings.

This work was part of a solo show at Porte B gallery in Paris.






New York Strip, 2023
Ink on paper mounted on wood panel
30 x 210 cm


Private Collection





I haven't drew New York in quite a while because I've been focusing on Asian metropolises. 
So to now draw New York again for this show was like talking with an old friend!

Paris Frames

Drawings on brass


This is a very special artwork based on my walks along the river Seine. Created in a month-long residency in Paris. It features the diffent facades that caught my eye during my walks from Parc André Citröen to Bercy.

Always alongside the river, there is a linear urban narrative that goes from Post-modernism to Classical and back to Modernism again.

This work was part of a solo show at Port B gallery in Paris.






Paris Frames, 2023


From left to right, from West to East of the city, trying to catch a glimpse of the real Paris.





Flâneur


Commissioned by Primosfera
Architecture by Manuel Aires Mateus
Video (and frame stills) by Vladimir Leopoldo

Creative Direction by Pacifica
A site-specific artwork to live inside a beautifully restored 19th-century building that stands on the border between the cosmopolitanism of Avenida da Liberdade and the authenticity of a traditional Lisbon bairro.

Hand drawn directly on brass, the artwork features fragmented memories from the immediate urban surroundings.


Flâneur
2022
Ink on brass sheets
Approx 3 x 1,5 m | 10 x 5 ft 








“It is this spirit of the promenade, of the notion of losing and finding oneself in the city, that the artist Vasco Mourão has revived, like a flâneur sauntering across the Portuguese cobbles under the shade of the trees, past kiosks, pavement cafés, neoclassical theatres and Art Nouveau buildings.”








“Based on these wanderings, using a marker and seven concave pieces of brass, the artist has created the existing city and an imagined version of it, reproducing trajectories and facades that change depending on the angle from which the panel is viewed.”









“The three-dimensional artwork, a jewel on which the city’s face has been drawn, can be seen in the building’s lobby, which brings the spirit of the age of the bairro and the capital into the interior of 21 Barata Salgueiro.“



By Primosfera



Illustrations

Urban Vortex




Commissioned illustration for El País Semanal Art Direction . Diego Aresas

Bronze for Best cover ÑH19 Awarded by Capí­tulo Español de la Society for News Design (SND-E) & SND Sudamérica

“More than half of the inhabitants of the planet live today in cities and by the middle of this century 70% of the world's population will be reached. Will there be room, employment and services for all?”

This monographic issue  has brought together experts in the field, reporters, photographers and illustrators who have gone out in search of answers.


Published on El País Semanal magazine, 12th May 2019




Original artwork
Urban Vortex, 2019
Ink on Waterford 250g/m2 paper
48x 38 cm

The New Yorker Sketchbook I



The New Yorker magazine, 23rd April 2012
Art Direction . Chris Curry

On the first piece of the series, an architectural capriccio where its possible to see depicted some of the city's highlights and personal favourites.





New New York, 2012
Ink on paper
18 x 23 cm | 7.3 x 9 in
Private collection



The New Yorker Sketchbook II



The New Yorker magazine, 24th December 2012
Art Direction . Chris Curry
On the second piece of the series, Central Park is the protagonist as a negative presence. A void in the urban landscape of NYC.





The New Yorker Sketchbook II, 2012
Ink on paper
18 x 73 cm | 7.3 29 in
Private collection







iPad version


The New Yorker Critics Section



The New Yorker magazine . 2012-2013
Creative Director . Chris Curry
A series of illustrations for the Critics Section at The New Yorker magazine. Focused on some cultural buildings in NYC but quickly evolved to different graphical representation of the city.

From 2012 to 2013, each month a new drawing was published on the magazine.










Experiments

Tokyo Surface

Personal work, 2023 


Portraits from a moment in the city.
A series of drawings based on interviews of people that I met in Tokyo.

A solo exhibition at the Embassy of Portugal in Tokyo, from the 27th November to 1st December 2023.


Join us for the public finissage
Friday, 1st December, 18.30h - 20.30h


Embassy of Portugal in Japan
3-6-6 Nishi-AzabuMinato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031




Junpei . Yurakucho/Matsudo . 2023
Mixed media on paper
60x50 cm - 24 x19 in





“During a stay in Sapporo and Tokyo, I've started to research ways to expand my field of work. To go beyond the urban landscape and to add a human element to my artworks.

For that I've defined a simple process. To interview a person and from that to create an artwork that would reflect their features and personality and also the location where that conversation took place.

A portrait from a specific moment in Tokyo.
Still a work in progress but definitely a step in a new direction.”


Tokyo, 2023






Miho . Shinjuku . 2023
Mixed media on paper
60x50 cm - 24 x19 in






Kenichi . Baruko-Yokohama . 2023
Mixed media on paper
60x50 cm - 24 x19 in





Mei . Taito . 2023
Mixed media on paper
60x50 cm - 24 x19 in





Yuki . Shinjuku . 2023
Mixed media on paper
60x50 cm - 24 x19 in





Thanks to the support of PARADISE Air & Sapporo TenjiyamaArt Studios.
And also to the Portuguese Embassy in Tokyo.




Breathing Line



Work developed at INCLASIFICABLE art residency
Cazalla de la Sierra, Sevilla . June-July 2019

An experiment based on a Japanese brush for calligraphy.

At my last visit to Japan, I fell in love with a brush (that happens, right?).
Loved its sensitivity, fluidity and expressiveness.
After filling many notebooks with a continuous line that reflected my breathing while drawing, I wondered what would happen with a change to a larger format.
For that I had recreate the brush and draw on the floor barefooted.

Each piece is a record of a different rhythm and time and invites you to follow the line and replicate the cadence of each breath.











29 breaths, 2019
Indian Ink on Gvarro 120 gr paper
1400 x 200 cm | 55 x 80 inches
Private Collection

33 breaths, 2019
Indian Ink on Gvarro 120 gr paper
1400 x 190 cm | 55 x 75 inches

Private Collection






30 breaths,2019
Indian Ink on Gvarro 120 gr paper
1400 x 200 cm | 55 x 80 inches
Private Collection

33 breaths, 2019
Indian Ink on Gvarro 120 gr paper
1400 x 190 cm | 55 x 75 inches
Private collection






31 breaths, 2019
Indian Ink on Gvarro 120 gr paper
1400 x 190 cm | 55 x 75 inches
Private collection
29 breaths, 2019
Indian Ink on Gvarro 120 gr paper
1400 x 200 cm | 55 x 80 inches
Private collection







Face Plastic




These are sculptures made of plastic trash and debris collected along the coast of Pico, a island which is part of the Azores archipelago, situated right in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

faceplastic.org

@faceplasticproject





I’ve stayed in Pico island for a few months during the summer and on my way to my favorite swimming spot I’ve noticed the plastic trash between the volcanic rocks on the shoreline.
It startled me because I was able to quickly gather 2 bags of trash on a 10 minutes walk.
So I decided to do something about it.
I’ve kept gathering trash and after a few days the first plastic faces were staring at me in their almost childish look.

This is my way to make it visible, to give it a face. Because this is our plastic.
Mine and yours.
See the full series here
faceplastic.org

50% of the proceeds will be donated to The Ocean Cleanup. A non-profit organization that is taking direct actions to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.

Murals


Tell me what you see


Produce within the Walk&Talk Festival
Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal.
A paste up mural of a large print of two different drawings overlapping swatches in a reference to Rorschach’s famous psychological test.
The public approaches the artwork from a far, only reading its main shape and as it comes closer new stories and details become clear.





Photos . Rui Soares



Creative Kitakagaya


Produced with the suport of Chishima Foundation
2019 . Osaka, Japan


A mural that gathers a selection of buildings and places from the creative ecosystem of Kitakagaya.

Special thanks to Junpei Mori for the recommending me and to Aoi Kisaka for making my stay such a pleasure.









20 days of drawing as a performance for The International Conference on Structures and Architecture (ICSA), the world's leading and largest global conference bridging the gap between Structures and Architecture.

Depicting architectural meanderings and imaginary structures, a long drawing emerges to crown the main entry of hall of the Architecture School.




Twisted, 2016
Ink on wall
15 x 2 m | 49 x 6.5 ft










Unfolded


Made with the support of the Fundación Pampero. Commissioned by the Armazém do Chá

Illustration for long wall at the Bar Armazém do Chá in Oporto, Portugal.

A continuos drawing depicting various buildings from the city, drawn in a way that it maintains the same vanishing point along the piece, creating a focal center.



Unfolded
Ink on paper
330 x 970 mm |  13 x 38 in




Photos . Ricardo Macedo