JOÃO GOMES GAGO

Portugal, 1991

GALERIA MONUMENTAL

Gomes Gago has a BA in Drawing by the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon and a MFA in Drawing and Printmaking by the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto. Among other distinctions, in 2018 João was awarded the big prize at the International Biennial of Young Art of Vila Verde (BPI Prize).
He is represented in private and institutional collections in Portugal and abroad.

All João Gomes Gago’s work, from 2017 until now, features an intimate connection with radiance and its traces, and often an explicit connection with fire: in «Reenactment» series, from 2017, where both paper and drawing are devoured by fire, used as a medium alongside with charcoal, Chinese ink, and acrylic; or in «Shadows», from 2018, which retrieves an ancient technique, using lithographic ink on photosensitive paper. The energy that is always the first thing that strikes us when we look at his works, tells us about how the line can reveal an energon, a body of energy in action, much more powerful than the delicate, discreet, and functional body of the artist. What João Gomes Gago offers in each of his works is an action that transcends himself and transcends the viewer, touching us with a blazing force and drawing us into something we lacked without knowing it.