António Neves Nobre
laboratório de próteses

3+1 Arte Contemporânea is pleased to present laboratório de próteses [prosthetics laboratory], the most recent solo exhibition by António Neves Nobre (1993, Lisbon) at the gallery.

António Neves Nobre works mainly in painting, creating works characterised by indetermination both on a technical level and in terms of what is enunciated. The materials used are identifiable, but the way the paint is applied to the canvas remains purposely undefined. This dichotomy is an integral part of the artist’s practice, which keeps his works within a framework that invokes perceptual imprecision and contradiction, opening space for outside experiences and interpretations.

In laboratório de próteses, Neves Nobre presents a new series of paintings that give continuation to the language he has explored in previous works, in a proposal that reveals brief immersive moments. In this set of works, the scale of which is clearly more intimate, the artist calls for longer and more attentive contemplation. These are works that take us to encounter apparent chemical transformations and reactions, terrestrial and atmospheric phenomena. The exhibition proposes to crystallise particular moments, samples of small worlds, giving them individuality, in an attempt to fix the instant of emulsion of liquid matter, or the vibration of the surface after an impact.

The works on display open the way to an abstraction that is entirely linked to the artist’s imaginative universe, but about which little is revealed, leaving room for those who observe and analyse the works to give them new meanings. Thus, Neves Nobre sets the tone, fostering a dialogue with the visitor and leaving them with an open invitation for an encounter of references, so that they can give it continuity and substance.