Alberto Carneiro
Os caminhos do corpo

3+1 Arte Contemporânea is proud to announce Os caminhos do corpo, a solo exhibition by Alberto Carneiro.

Alberto Carneiro (Trofa, 1937–2017) was one of the most prominent Portuguese sculptors, having participated in important artistic events such as the Venice Biennale 1976, the São Paulo Biennial 1977 and the exhibition Alternativa Zero, organised by Ernesto de Sousa, in Portugal 1977. His life and work were greatly influenced by agricultural activity and proximity with the land, addressing themes such as nature and the body in territories bordering conceptualism, minimalism and land art.

Former director of the Gulbenkian Museum, Penelope Curtis writes: “Carneiro’s way of combining avant-garde art practice with the apparently unending agricultural routines of the countryside is really distinctive. His brief fixing of otherwise transient stages in a long process is also highly attuned. His own artisanal background in oficinas de santeiro (religious image maker workshops), his closeness to materials, and his rootedness, gave him an arsenal with which to work, and to produce new ‘calendars’ of manual production. Everything he did seems to have been informed by manual dexterity – most evident in the pace and spacing of his drawings – and his hands were a subject as well as a tool.”

The exhibition Os caminhos do corpo brings together a selection of seminal works on paper, photography and sculpture, representing various periods from the artist’s career.