Cycloptic, a solo exhibition by Portuguese artist Paulo Lisboa, includes an installation and several drawings mostly conceived during the last year.

In the artistic practice of Paulo Lisboa the close complicity between the drawing, the materials and optical devices in particular stand out and form the basis from which the artist constantly experiments with his own aesthetic and perceptive capacities. The imagery convokes a prolonged genealogy of visual representation modes, from the myths on the origins of the image (and art), to the use of the camera obscura and to, more recently, modern devices from the eras of technology and electricity that have widened the horizon in terms of possibilities for capturing and projecting images – such as photography, film and video. Moreover, one can also agree that this work focuses on the physical and aesthetic qualities of light, both as a means and as a material.

The circular form stands out in the group of works, as does the use of charcoal, the application of which in aluminium and glass supports suggests very slow and calculated sedimentation processes in layers. In the interaction between the charcoal and its supports it is important to highlight the possible effects of opacity, transparency and reflex – in other words, different forms of reaction to light. With a remarkable economy of resources, these works by Paulo Lisboa give expression to his wish to translate light into drawing, in its purest form.

Paulo Lisboa was born in Lisboa, in 1977. He studied painting at the Escola Superior de Tecnologias – Instituto Politécnico de Tomar and studied drawing at the Faculdade de Belas-Artes de Lisboa of the University of Lisbon. His solo exhibitions include The Last Photon on the Retina (Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid, 2023), Um esqueleto entra no bar... (Fundação Leal Rios, Lisboa, 2020), Asterismo, Sequência para Piano, Guitarra e Projector (with Marco Franco and Francisco Cordovil, Serralves Foundation, Porto, 2019). Among the various group exhibitions in which he has taken part, the following can be mentioned: BF22 – Vila Franca de Xira Photography Biennial (Vila Franca de Xira, 2022), Muitas vezes marquei encontro comigo próprio no ponto zero (Atelier – Museu Júlio Pomar, Lisboa, 2019), Anuário – Uma visão retrospectiva de arte no Porto (Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto, 2019), Portugal, Portugueses (Museu Afro Brasil Emanoel Araujo, São Paulo, 2016). His work is represented in numerous public and private collections, such as the Coleção Câmara Municipal de Lisboa and the Fundación Otazu. Paulo Lisboa has been represented by UMA LULIK_ gallery since 2019.