ART GALLERY

Art is Long, Life is Brief

“It is with great satisfaction that the former students and teachers of the António Arroio School accepted the challenge to exhibit at Casino Lisboa. This is their 26th exhibition since 2015, showcasing over three hundred artists from our school. We are also pleased to feature two ceramic artists, invited by the Organising Committee, whose works bring a special shine to this exhibition. In this exhibition, we are proud to honor a former student who passed away some years ago, but whose drawings have never been displayed until now. This is an opportunity to see the distinctive lines and forms he created throughout his life. Besides being an excellent artist, he also excelled in decoration, contributing to the decoration of the Ritz Hotel, the City Museum, the Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro Museum, the renovation of the São Luís Theatre, and numerous private homes. Thus, in this 26th exhibition we are proud to present Carlos Andrade Ribeiro,” says António Jorge Ribeiro, exhibition coordinator.  

Fourth Industrial Revolution and Sustainability

In his art, Aquilino Ferreira currently uses what is known as "electronic waste", or e-waste, technological artefacts that he recycles, conferring on them a new identity. Through his mastery of the Mixed Technique on canvas, he creates countless works of art, which tend to manifest a creative expression that identifies with the so-called "Fourth Industrial Revolution". His creations reveal a universe of new concepts, which are accessible to the understanding and intelligence of contemporary man. Aquilino Ferreira's art constitutes "open work", to borrow a term coined by the semiologist Umberto Eco. This allows the artist to achieve expression that is closer to the Sublime, the creative category that Aristotle perhaps valued most in his thinking about the Poetics of artistic forms.

CHINESE NEW YEAR



Casino Lisboa launched an impressive installation to commemorate the Chinese new year, marked by the dragon.

Featured are 80 illuminated lanterns, numerous Chinese ornaments, an installation of a life-size peach tree, a dragon over four meters high and a majestic red carpet. Visitors can find various details of the Chinese New Year installation in the glass sections of the revolving door at the main entrance to Casino Lisboa. Not to be missed, until March 10th.

MOMENTUM



"There are moments that beckon us. Others that soothe and console. How many do we yearn for, and which ones do we cherish most? Many are those we accumulate in oblivion. Some capture our attention. And what about those that pursue us, shaping our history? A kind of bittersweet sum that sustains the color and guides the course of our journey.

Each moment isn't always a dream, but it can be the impetus for a new breath."

Pedro César Teles

Artistic Curriculum

Of Portuguese nationality, Pedro César Teles was born in Angola in 1974. He developed a passion for drawing and painting during his teenage years. His studies and life took him to various regions of Portugal. His university education was divided between Lisbon and Porto: Bachelor's degree (UCP), Master's degree (UNL), and attendance at a law degree program (UCL).

His work explores the human experience, filled with conflicts and tensions, and transforms reality through the unique exercise of transfiguration, allowing the viewer to scrutinize and unveil the world of the author. In doing so, he is also fundamentally scrutinizing and discovering himself, creating himself.

Pedro César Teles has an extensive résumé, having been recognized with prestigious awards on several occasions. The visual artist has featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His work is part of various private collections (both national and international) and is represented in various institutions. In addition to the world of art, he is engaged in teaching activities.

PEIXES COM ALMA



The Art Gallery hosted the exhibition "Peixes com Alma" by Nuno Paulino, a solo show that brings together 14 sculptures.

"Peixes com Alma (Soulful Fish) arose from the need to escape the sheer meticulousness of my other profession as a custom rodbuilder. I needed to unleash everything that my imagination was constantly creating, to feel free, to be able to create free of restrictions. 

In all of my sculptures, the wood I use comes from parts of old fishing boats, and that is why I call them soulful fish. These boats all have a rich history full of adventures, victories, and defeats, and when they reach the end of their life cycle, they are just abandoned. By doing this, I can immortalize these boats. I feel that if they could talk, they would definitely have a lot to tell us. It is also a way of paying tribute to all the fishermen and the difficult lives they lead. 

These pieces were created on the spur of the moment, without taking any measurements or making any plans, and, in this, they also represent another soul—my own. They are all drifting around in my mind waiting for the best moment to show themselves. The items made for this particular exhibition were made during a turbulent time in my own personal life, and each one of them depicts the feelings I was experiencing: passion, anger, sadness, frustration, joy, disappointment, and much much more, but above all they are soulful pieces made with a lot of love."

Nuno Paulino

VESPA, A RAINHA DE OURO



More than 30 vespas, of various models from different eras and generations, will be on display as part of an exhibition organized by the póvoa de santa iria vespa club.

The models on show literally span across many decades of history; from the year the brand was established (1946) to the present day. "The bottom line is one and one only, and that is that time goes by, but Vespa’s charisma remains intact," stresses the Póvoa de Santa Iria Vespa Club, a non‑profit association, founded in January 2020 by three friends with a mutual passion: the iconic Vespa. 

"To experience and revisit models from a brand that has left its mark on various different eras ‑ this is the organization's ultimate goal. Enabling visitors to let their imagination take hold of the handlebars of an unrivalled icon in the world of two‑wheel motoring, and to let themselves get carried away on a journey that will surely be an unforgettable one," adds the Póvoa de Santa Iria Vespa Club.

CELEBRATING CHINESE NEW YEAR



Since 22nd january, thousands of visitors to casino lisboa have expressed their interest in the chinese new year celebrations, marking the year of the rabbit. As part of the celebrations, an exhibition commemorating the year of the rabbit has been launched. Following its success in 2022, Casino Lisboa once again welcomes an exhibition to celebrate Chinese New Year. With the support of the Chinese Spring Festival Association, the exhibition features 80 glowing lanterns and numerous Chinese ornaments in the Art Gallery.

This year, visitors to Casino Lisboa can see an unparalleled life‑sized peach tree on display. In China, peaches represent longevity, while peach blossom symbolises growth, prosperity, and romance. As a result, with its bright colours and beautiful appearance, peach blossom is considered sacred in China.

It is also worth noting that celebrations of this special date are on full view with a number of decorative displays commemorating Chinese New Year on the windows of the revolving doors at the main entrance of Casino Lisboa.

The beginning of the new year in the Chinese calendar took place on 22nd January, and 2023 marks the year of the rabbit, the fourth animal in the Chinese zodiac. Legend has it that Buddha invited the animals to a party and only 12 showed up. The Lunar New Year is a date celebrated in China, East Asia, and by many communities from the region around the world.

SILÊNCIOS E OUTROS DISCURSOS



The exhibition "Silences and other speeches" by the artist Teresa Sousa presented twenty-six paintings that relate situations and small stories, with three or less characters, that simultaneously show and omit intentions, uncertainties, emotions, being challenging to listen to what their silences say, as well as the conversations, dialogues and monologues that are guessed.

The presented works were inspired by memories, poems, and mere situations of everyday life, observed or fictionalized.

From this process results a chronicle or a tale, which is recorded in the form of paintings, on display for visitors to the Art Gallery of the Casino Lisboa to read and interpret these colorful narratives.

Born in 1959, born in Lisbon, Teresa Sousa, after a long professional career, began her training in Drawing and Painting in 2006 at Oficina do Desenho, at Associação Cultural in Cascais where her artistic career has developed since then.

LIA FERREIRA EXHIBITION



On the 12th of July, plastic artist Lia Ferreira led a guided tour of her exhibition Essential Portrait - When is Portrait a Portrait? on display at the Casino Lisboa Art Gallery. The guided tour made it possible to contemplate and analyze, in a detailed way, this individual exhibition of painting that has as its main focus the human figure, well expressed in 81 paintings, drawings and illustrations. Remember that the exhibition is open until the 31st of July.

"The work that I have developed as a painter involves, almost always, the representation of the human figure. This observation results from a preference, a natural inclination, which I do not contradict and that has been developed since childhood, having had a more oriented approach in time. from the Faculty and very free since then", explains Lia Ferreira.

And she continues: "Now, normally, when people ask me to portray someone they like, or themselves, they look for immediate recognition of the portrayed and estimate that their best physical characteristics are reinforced, in a pleasant and pleasant result. can sometimes weigh on the enjoyment of the creative moment and, contrary to the monotony, they systematically lead me to antithetical creation. From these resistance movements, I bring you small escape series "Female Gaze", "Me, Ugly" and "Ugly Drawings" that generally contain a purpose of contradicting the perfect, the beautiful, the precious, and, in what constitutes the novelty in my path (and only there), the most recent path I have taken in the search for the essential portrait, the minimal portrait (but not minimalist) or the limit of the portrait".

Biography
Born in 1974, Lia Ferreira is a Portuguese artist who, as an only child, spent hours drawing. His childhood was happy at Escola do Beiral, where art and creative freedom played a fundamental role in his education and where, under the tutelage of his teacher Maria José Vieira, he flourished in a perfect environment.

She has a degree in Fashion Design from the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University of Lisbon and a postgraduate degree in Cultural and Creative Management and Entrepreneurship at ISCTE-INDEG. Throughout her career, Lia Ferreira has worked in fashion, theater and advertising, but her main focus is on painting, illustration and drawing, making her a commissioned portraitist.

Between 2019 and 2021 his works were exhibited at the Ordem dos Médicos, North Region, in Porto, at the Ordem dos Engenheiros, South Region, in Lisbon and in Tavira, at Casa Álvaro de Campos. In 2019, LuxWOMAN magazine highlighted her work in a major interview published under the heading "Women we believe in". Lia Ferreira is present at the Singulart gallery, based in Paris and operating online across the globe, having sold works to Europe and the United States of America.

She has been represented, since 2020, by "Espace Artistes Femmes", in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded by Marie Bagi, with a PhD in Contemporary Art History and Philosophy and participates fortnightly in the newspaper "Mensagem de Lisboa" as an illustrator of chronicles signed by Vasco M. Barrett. She currently resides in Oeiras with her husband and their 4 daughters, aged between 6 and 21, and their dog Olivia.

MARIOLA LANDOWSKA EXHIBITION



13 works by the renowned Polish artist Mariola Landowska can be seen. "The poetry of my eyes on civilizations" is a short but revealing sentence by Mariola Landowska, in which the key to understanding her work is found. The painter who once chose to live in Portugal, "a place of connection between Luso-Brazilian and Luso-Arab cultures", clearly expresses her interest in and knowledge of indigenous cultures and her desire for an art that expresses the signs and icons of her mythologies.

In this painting there is a feminine sensibility, we find, for example, several allusions to the myth of the "Great Mother", present in so many primitive societies but also the ancestral root of common imaginaries.

Biography
Mariola Landowska was born in the city of Szczecin, Poland. He studied Fine Arts at the Art Institute "Gazzola" in Piacenza, Italy. He traveled through Brazil, India and also through several European and African countries where he was inspired by ethnic and contemporary motifs.

In search of the diversity of his artistic expression, he developed, in addition to painting, tile work and marble sculpture.

She was invited by the Polish Embassy to represent Portugal, in Munich, Germany, in an exhibition of 8 Polish artists residing abroad.

Received an honorable mention in the competition and exhibition at the Jorge Vieira Museum, in Beja. He has shown his works since 1994 in several galleries and museums in Poland, Portugal, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the United States. It is also represented in the Szczecin city encyclopedia.

YEAR OF THE TIGER



An original installation commemorating the Chinese New Year ruled by the Tiger. This is an unprecedented installation that thus evokes the "Year of the Tiger" in the Art Gallery, located in the area surrounding the Arena Lounge.

Visitors to Casino Lisboa can see an installation with 80 illuminated lanterns and numerous Chinese ornaments in the Art Gallery. The celebration of this very special date is immediately evident with several notes of this installation on the rotating door of the main entrance of Casino Lisboa.

Remember that the Lunar New Year began last Tuesday, February 1st, being a date celebrated in China, East Asia and by various communities in the region around the world.

NASCLEGO - PEDRO NASCIMENTO



This exhibition evoked several iconic Portuguese buildings and monuments, which are true references of different regions of the mainland, as well as the Azores archipelago. It is an exhibition that encompasses true works of art that should inspire visitors of all ages. Pedro Nascimento will share with Casino Lisboa visitors his passion for one of the fastest growing toys in the world.

Born in Sintra, Pedro Nascimento, the youngest of seven siblings, received his first Lego box when he passed his primary grade exam as a gift from his aunt. The Lego box contained only blue pieces, all exactly the same size, 2x2 bricks.

Man had recently arrived on the Moon and Pedro Nascimento had the idea of ​​building a rocket. At Christmas or any other festive occasion, his entertainment base was always Lego and it continued to do so until he became part of the Regiment of Commands. Lego has always played an important role in the years it was part of the Special Troops Units. It was always an escape and an important recreational activity for him.

With the birth of his twin daughters, Pedro Nascimento, put his passion for Lego to fallow, but five years later that passion was reborn with even more enthusiasm with an incessant search for new ideas that led him to dedicate himself to photography and drawing. This enthusiasm, which has lasted for over 20 years, has led to the construction of dozens of buildings and monuments made of Lego.

Its current projects consist of three architectural ensembles: Terreiro do Paço with almost 146 square meters and made with millions of Lego pieces; the second phase of the Champalimaud Foundation which, together with the first phase, occupies a space of 45 square meters; and a typical Arraiolos rug, with a surface of 18 square meters made with 312,000 pieces.
Pedro Nascimento has never considered himself an unconditional fan of Lego, but he assumes that the addition he feels is healthy and having achieved what he has already done is an extraordinary achievement for him. His unique builds result not only from his talent as an artist, but also from a constant passion and dedication to the world of Lego.
He admits, by the way, that one of the motivations he feels comes from his fans, who participate in events and follow his work on social networks and his greatest joy is listening to his comments and observations without knowing for sure who he is.

BEYOND THE PLASTIC



"Life as we know it is impossible without the existence of water, whether salty, fresh, drinking water. The first forms of life on the planet appear in the ocean that provides important resources for human society. Ocean exploration has increased considerably, as well as, pollution with non-biodegradable materials such as plastic", emphasizes the author Antonieta Martinho.
He continues: "Where facts and figures lose influence, works of art can make an impact, this may explain why there has been a proliferation of plastic waste art in recent years. Ongoing consumption campaigns that raise awareness about the issue are needed. impact of disposable plastic on the Ocean as it is an accumulated material from people's daily use".

"For this exhibition, I collected and used bottles and jugs. I tried to use them and show them in a different plastic language. In addition to the aforementioned plastics, I also used a recyclable plastic derivative that is copolyester, which can replace plastic items or glass in household utility products as it offers transparency and is resistant to heat and various chemical substances, which guarantees the maintenance of the colors and brightness of the utensils even after several washings. In addition, it is considered ecofriendly, in other words, it reduces negative impacts and damage to the environment due to its greater durability. I have been handling this material since 2016, and it is currently the support for my pieces", explains the author.

The installation "The Ocean", featured in the exhibition "Beyond The Plastic" is essentially a composition of several two-dimensional and three-dimensional painting works that interact with each other, establish a dialogue and try to integrate into the exhibition space. Ocean.
"The water, due to its fluidity, transparency and lightness, appeals and captivates, in addition to allowing the survival of marine life beings. The blue color was chosen by analogy with a blue, deep, calm ocean. The monochrome of the color is rich in intention, allows to show the texture, the subtle variations of color on a transparent support, in which the voids, translucent and opaque are superimposed", reveals Antonieta Martinho.

Antoinette Martinho:
Antonieta Martinho was born in Kalima, then the Kingdom of Belgium. He graduated in Medicine at the FMUL in 1975. He joined the degree in Painting at FBAUL from 2009 to 2014. He took the SNBA Practical Painting Course, from 2012 to 2014. Member of the governing bodies of SNBA–Biénio 2015/16. He held his first solo exhibition in 2016, making a choice, in which the abstract component has its own meaning in the language he uses.

STREAMLIGHT - MARGARIDA VALENTE



"StreamLight" brought together 16 objects of different dimensions and whose compositions integrate different materials such as tights, textile nets, wires, steel cables or wood.
With a vast curriculum, Margarida Valente has always been based on exploring different materials, their colors and textures, and the way they combine. The starting point for each piece is always defined by changing the original function of materials, or products that have already served their purpose and can be, in this way, reused. The pieces are always handcrafted, and in limited editions.

VIII MOSTRA DE ARTISTAS ARGENTINOS EM PORTUGAL



An original collective exhibition of 35 works of painting and sculpture at the Art Gallery, located in the area surrounding the Arena Lounge. The painter Luis Cohen Fusé, who died in July, was honored.

"VII Exhibition of Argentine Artists in Portugal", under the tutelage of the Embassy of Argentina, brought together a cast of notable works by nine renowned Argentine artists residing in Portugal.

PONTO AMARELO - CAROLINA GARFO



An original individual exhibition of 15 sculptures, by Carolina Garfo, a talented sculptor and ceramist, originally from Paradela, Trás-os-Montes, who has vast experience working with clay and ceramics.

Her vivid imagination allowed him to transform and mold clay into animals as characters with human characteristics. Characters that take on peculiar traits, somewhat grotesque, but curious, which remind us of humans, animals, monsters and fantastic and often macabre creatures by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch.

IN AT THE DEEP END, "ORCA", XICO GAIVOTA - RICARDO RAMOS



An original sculptural piece built with different materials collected by the artist on non-concession beaches, such as flip-flops, hammocks, plastics, wood, buckets (octopus traps), sponges, styrofoam, "bidons", buoys, ropes and screws in A2 stainless steel, "private collection".
Fundamentally, recycled art is about reusing materials and conserving nature. There is an underlying message in recycled art. The key is recycling, but at the same time the message that this art sends is the consequences of the damage we are inflicting on our planet.
"Orca" is an expression of the very special relationship that Ricardo shares with the sea, of his desire to reinvent this regurgitated plastic and to reuse materials to create something new.

I WAS THINKING ABOUT YOU - JOÃO ABREU VALENTE



This original individual show brought together seven pieces of pottery. According to author João Abreu Valente, "I Was Thinking About You" expresses "The desire for what lies ahead, as a desire that seeks the possibility of the impossible".
"I Was Thinking About You" is a work developed around the behavioral relationship between man and object. Its starting point is the Casino context and explores the tension that exists in the possibility of the impossible.

OTROS MUNDOS II - SILVIA ZANG



In an intimate exhibition, which brings together a collection of paintings by Silvia Zang, we can appreciate her works that are evocative of Chinese masterpieces. His typical compositions are strengthened with a wealth of colors and techniques and his ability to create a narrative with shapes and configurations that attract the viewer.

Silvia's works show a clear fascination for the landscape and the natural elements that surround it, but at the same time, what is omnipresent in typical Chinese and Japanese ink painting landscapes is crossed with abstract forms that create a fusion within the composition.

PERCURSOS II - VARIAÇÕES - JOSÉ CARDOSO



In José Cardoso's 34 paintings, what walks before the eyes is the (un)faithful imitation of multifaceted reality. It is the versatility of styles that shocks many, but those who - simple admirers, sometimes fortuitous moments of harmonious moments - enchant. Because it is not worth praising another Art besides Life; nor is it because of being hermetic that one manages to extract more art from the sweat - just as there is no current capable of overcoming the others in this desire.

What stands out most in José Cardoso's painting is the intentionality of each line, rigorously placed, mathematically correct, scientifically imposed as a sign that the parts make up the whole. And that this whole expresses a solemn homage to a reality, even if that reality is after all a fetish: the thick lips, always as if freshly painted; the breasts, declining or opulent; the curve of the buttock, the grace of the horse, the puffed sail synonymous with the pride of a boat that knows it will never be lost in the storm because in the painter's torn gesture there will always be a serene place, a square of peace where it can rest forever before the searching eye of the viewer.