“Contraforte”, an exhibition by Martinho Costa
The Cascais Cultural Center is presenting the exhibition “Contraforte” by Portuguese painter Martinho Costa. Through an assembly that subverts the conventional, the artist proposes a new way of displaying and contemplating painting and creates a site-specific installation.
Curated by architect and curator Frederico Vicente, the 34 paintings by Martinho Costa in “Contraforte” form three large compositions that redesign the rooms on the top floor of the Cascais Cultural Center, creating entirely new spaces and routes. Martinho Costa's canvases, juxtaposed and contiguous in four-meter-long murals, build the walls of his counterforce. In this way, the artist and curator invite the viewer to exercise what they call “pendular vision”, a gaze in constant movement and without fixed coordinates.
“Contraforte is not a painting exhibition, although it is one. At the end of the day, the artist is trying to recapture the same dynamism, interaction and scale of the participatory observer from other visual arts, such as sculpture, happening or even architecture. He directs the gaze towards a path around the work, where the back is as relevant as the front,” says the curator.
In these oil paintings on canvas, of various sizes, Martinho Costa paints everyday scenes, suburban scenarios between the dense city and dispersed nature, linked by railroads and a night train. Works such as “Painel de Azulejos” (2021), “Fragas de São Simão” (2023), “Pique Nique Horizontal” (2023), “Entroncamento” (2024) are some of the canvases included in the geometry of “Contraforte”.
Find out more:HERE
More information: 214 815 660 | geral@fdl.pt
Organization: Cascais City Council | D. Luís I Foundation | Museum Quarter
