Eye Massage / Ana Manso
Nov 9 – Dec 22, 2018

Ana Manso

Pedro Cera is proud to present the fourth exhibition of Ana Manso at the gallery.

Surface has always been at the center of Ana Manso’s practice. Even during her short-lived adventures and passing escapes from the medium of painting, (usually never lasting longer then a winter afternoon), the urge to explore the limitless, yet simultaneously limiting possibilities of a (blank) surface, have been a constant urge and a long-lived temptation for the artist. A surface for Manso, is a place where abstraction meets daily life. It is a place of possibility and of encounter, a place where the unpredictability of chance is orchestrated by the conscious selection of the right ingredients.

 

Ana Manso / Photo Bruno Lopes

Ana Manso

Ana Manso / Photo Bruno Lopes

The actual process of painting for Ana Manso, is a mix of rational and irrational decisions. While the choice of surface, as in the placement of a given painting, has been a spoken preoccupation for the artist for some time, (her many murals can serve us here as only one of many examples), surface, as in texture, is a new element in her practice. Testing the limits of abstraction through imitation of materials (surfaces), appropriated from daily life, Manso touches up on the thin line between the abstract and the representational. Making sure they are physically kept apart, the artist uses these imitated/appropriated motive(s) as an architectural element and as a way to create rhythm for the viewing of her paintings. The introduction of representational ingredients then highlights the animism, characteristic for the microcosms of forms and shapes, distinctive for these works.

 

Ana Manso / Photo Bruno Lopes

Ana Manso / Photo Bruno Lopes

Far from any form of rational classification, the microcosmic and organic driven nature of Manso’s recent paintings, reminds us of an eye rub. Flashes of color and shapes are projected on the inner side of our eye-lids, some reminiscent of known objects, while others purely abstract. The tension between both, creates a need to explore the depth of these paintings. A depth that is no longer achieved through multiplying layers of paint, but by a density and impenetrability of a worked surface, drawing the eye deep in. The seductive possibility of interpretation inherent to these paintings, generates however another type of reading. A reading that is directed rather than towards the conclusive and the purely rational based, towards freedom of association that brings us closer to life.

 

Ana Manso

Ana Manso has studied painting at the Art Academy in Lisbon. Her work has been exhibited at Museu Serralves (Oporto), Matadero Madrid, FUTURA Centre for Contemporary Art (Prague), Spike Island (Bristol), Chiado 8 – Arte Contemporânea (Lisbon), Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte (Naples), Fondazione Rivolidue (Milan) or Museu da Electricidade (Lisbon) among others. Her works are part of the collection of Museu Serralves (Oporto), Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Elvas (Elvas, Portugal), the Câmara Municipal de Lisboa (Lisbon) among others.

 

Eye Massage / Ana Manso
November 9 – December 22, 2018 / Pedro Cera
Please visit the exhibition page >

Dorothea Lange. Tales of Life and Work
Camera / Jul 19 – Oct 8, 2023
Dorothea Lange's photography, now nearly a hundred years later, continues to resound in its portrayal of a time and...
+
Momentum 12: Together As To Gather
Jun 10 – Oct 8, 2023
For the biennale, Tenthaus practices a gathering methodology. The intention is to begin from the practices of the artists...
+
Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects
Sep 28, 2023 – Jan 21, 2024
American Prospects has enjoyed a life of acclaim. Its pages are filled with unexpected excitement, despair, tenderness and hope....
+
REGENERATE
Jun 23 – Dec 10, 2023
With REGENERATE as its theme, the festival brings together works that explore the changes modern society must face, seeing...
+
The Unspoken Things
Photo Series
The Unspoken Things series is inspired by ethnographic texts that deal with the body as a cultural phenomenon, drawing...
+
ARTPIL / Prescription .142
White heat. A Green River.
A bridge, scorched yellow palms from the summer-sleeping house drowsing through August. Days I have held, days I have...
+
Rencontres d’Arles 2023
A State of Consciousness
Every year, Rencontres d’Arles captures our world’s state of consciousness. Its photographers, artists, and curators help us to see...
+
Edith Dekyndt / L’Origine des Choses
Feb 8 – Dec 12, 2023
Inspired by Bruno Latour’s “actants” Edith Dekyndt defines her compositions and her objects as “patient” because all these objects...
+
Dorothea Lange. Tales of Life and Work
Camera / Jul 19 – Oct 8, 2023
Dorothea Lange's photography, now nearly a hundred years later, continues to resound in its portrayal of a time and...
+
Momentum 12: Together As To Gather
Jun 10 – Oct 8, 2023
For the biennale, Tenthaus practices a gathering methodology. The intention is to begin from the practices of the artists...
+
Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects
Sep 28, 2023 – Jan 21, 2024
American Prospects has enjoyed a life of acclaim. Its pages are filled with unexpected excitement, despair, tenderness and hope. Its fears are expressed in beauty, its sadnesses in irony.
+
REGENERATE
Jun 23 – Dec 10, 2023
With REGENERATE as its theme, the festival brings together works that explore the changes modern society must face, seeing...
+
The Unspoken Things
Photo Series
The Unspoken Things series is inspired by ethnographic texts that deal with the body as a cultural phenomenon, drawing...
+
ARTPIL / Prescription .142
White heat. A Green River.
A bridge, scorched yellow palms from the summer-sleeping house drowsing through August. Days I have held, days I have lost, days that outgrow
+
Rencontres d’Arles 2023
A State of Consciousness
Every year, Rencontres d’Arles captures our world’s state of consciousness. Its photographers, artists, and curators help us to see...
+
Edith Dekyndt / L’Origine des Choses
Feb 8 – Dec 12, 2023
Inspired by Bruno Latour’s “actants” Edith Dekyndt defines her compositions and her objects as “patient” because all these objects...
+