Drawing Room Lisboa 2025

The Estelar (Stellar) series by Tiago Baptista began in Paris during his artistic residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts at the end of 2023 and has been developed ever since. It began as a return to the practice of painting, which had been on hold for a few months, however ended up becoming a body of work that extends into the field of drawing. While there is an undeniably pictorial interest and quest, the essayistic characteristics and spatial and compositional experimentation that drawing offers are just as important, if not more so. They are also drawings, as they are works that have a diaristic, written tone, using elements that can sometimes be shells, sometimes mineral formations that are both inert terrestrial geological elements and moving ethereal stars. The sheet of paper here is seen as a board in a visual game, creating connections between figures and background, generating spaces that can be both submerged and celestial, initiating cosmological relationships, like someone playing with collections of pebbles and shells found on journeys, thus trying to find a poetic meaning in this remembrance of the primordial relationship with the cycles of the earth. The sinistrodextral reading of these works will be in dialogue with a wall mural by the artist. This solo presentation at the fair will coincide with Baptista’s participation as a finalist in the FLAD Drawing 2025 Prize also on view at Sociedade Belas Artes and compliment his solo exhibition at 3+1 Arte Contemporânea.

Tiago Baptista (1986, Leiria) lives and works in Lisbon. He studied Fine Arts at the Escola Superior de Artes e Design das Caldas da Rainha. Baptista has been an artist resident at the Zé dos Bois Association in Lisbon since 2010. He participated in other residential programs at António Duarte Atelier-Museum, Caldas da Rainha (2008-2009); Culturia, Berlin (2013); Cortex Frontal / Sindicato Dos Pintores, Arraiolos (2020); Projecto Nascentes, Serra Espaço Cultural, Fontes, Leiria (2021); Teatro José Lúcio Da Silva, Leiria (2023) and Cité Internationale Des Arts, Paris (2024). Tiago was awarded the Aquisição Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (2015) and selected for the Prémio EDP Novos Artistas (2013) and Prémio Fidelidade Mundial (2009). Regularly exhibiting since 2007, selected solo exhibitions include: Bílis Negra, curated by David Revés, Alfaia, Loulé (2025); The weeping rock, 3+1 Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon (2025); Pedra e vento (with Mariana Gomes), Buraco, Lisbon (2025); Febre Contínua, curated by Natxo Checa, Centro Cultural e de Congressos das Caldas da Rainha (2025); Caminho pela Linha da Sombra, curated by Ana Anacleto, CAV, Coimbra (2022); The Tale, curated by Susana Ventura, Rialto 6, Lisbon (2022); The only show is the waiting one [O único espectáculo é o da espera], 3+1 Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon (2022); Febre, curated by Natxo Checa, Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon (2021); Desenho Sumido, curadoria de Alexandre Baptista, Centro de Artes de Águeda, Águeda (2020); Véu sujo, um outro, Projectroom, Art Gallery – Bank of Portugal, Leiria (2019); Atrás do pensamento, 3+1 Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon (2018); A luz em si, A Montra, Lisbon (2014), and Dysfunctional, Atelier-Museu António Duarte, Caldas da Rainha (2009).  His work is represented in the following collections: Portuguese State Art Collection; Lisbon City Hall; Coleção de Arte Fundação EDP; Coleção PLMJ; Coleção Norlinda e José Lima; Coleção António Cachola, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Elvas; Coleccion AR2A, La Coruna; Coleccion Navacerrada, Madrid; amongst other Private National and International collections.