PONTES LUSO-GALAICAS (OBRAS de Rodrigo Canhão (Pato))

Rodrigo Canhão (PATO)
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RODRIGO CANHÃO (PATO)

Born in Coimbra (1968) Rodrigo Canhão lives in Santo Varão which gives him the happy opportunity of painting the Mondego river rice fields spreading before him.
Rodrigo Canhão has always been a committed artist. His involvement in art includes membership of the Coimbra Plastic Arts Centre (he became a member at 16 years of age). His pictures project a very individual, personal style with perhaps a touch of narcissism, but a clear rejection of any particular school or specific painting mode.
He began exhibiting his work in 1984. He had his first individual exhibition in 1990. Since then he has had various exhibitions all over Portugal. (Vila Nova de Cerveira, Coimbra, Lisbon, Braga, Vila Real, Viana do Castelo, Póvoa do Varzim, Viseu, Aveiro, Guarda, Póvoa do Lanhoso, Bragança…)
Canhão’s figure/creations are convincing fiction. But if the entire repetition is reinforcement so is the alteration even in the continuity and continuity understood as the omnipresence of these figures- with the honourable exception of “Rochinha” (the scruffiest and street dog of Quinta das Rochas) who seems to want to go on climbing, go higher, finally perched on top of the mountain.
States of the soul behind the contaminated or contaminating masks of true identity? Rodrigo Canhão’s artist alter ego? (Re) inventions of himself or-simply- self portraits? The art of self denial? The painter gives no answer to any of these questions. Inspiration and an oneric state work for an artist who has no time for creative anguish. The rest is nothing, conjectures and fantasies of the spectators which may(or may not) lead to curious formulations about his way of seeing the world which surrounds us and that which is innermost secret and unfathomable hidden within the artist who transform it into lines of strength.
In acrylic, oils or watercolour, and set in a larger frame, a humanity more artistic than human transpires from the figures. And the eyes? In bitter-sweet contrast, with strong expression and dominance, Rodrigo Canhão’s characters’ eyes are sometimes tormented and sometimes as hard as steel, also the eyes of an inquisitor. They are also tragic at times, deep as moons, other times innocent, old eyes; and sometimes they are empty of deep silences (the presence/absence duality, eyes of memory-shadows that stare hypnotically. Such a frontal look seems to see nothing but always hints at uneasiness and disquiet.
There is tension in that look, a leap into the unlimited (the stairs-precipice is a particularly noteworthy feature), to something which one feels like guessing, to inflict upon the forbidden, something which places perplexity in way we address these paintings. Then, there is sarcasm and irony, humour and mockery, defiance and firmness in the portrait-actors, intriguing faces which so many imaginable
faces when of a grotesque nature bringing together truths and fantasies beneath blue predominance in all its diversity. But in his chromatic discourse the reds, euphoric orange colours, garish colours, and the violet, the chamois, the yellow-ochre, the colour of grain, and the shaded grey ashes, the dizzy, or perhaps not dizzy, greens
Rodrigo Canhão’s work enables one to recreate beings, objects and the light in multiple gear shifts, a sort of vertigo produced by contemplating an(ir) reality that illudes and deludes, which is, after all, that of the human condition.

RODRIGO CANHÃO

Rodrigo Canhão, ou PATO, nasceu em Coimbra em 1968, Iniciou o seu
percurso Artístico em 1983, no CAP -Circulo Artes Plásticas de Coimbra.
Sócio da Associação Cultural Itinerários Contemporâneos – Zero ( ICZERO)
Estuda actualmente Multimédia no Instituto Superior Miguel Torga em Coimbra.
Prémio Salão em 2007 Malta International Art Biennale e Painting Distinction
em 2009.
Presente na I e II edição da MIAB - MADEIRA INTERNATIONAL ART BIENAL
Exposição individual na Commission Européenne – Luxemburgo - 2007
Exposição retrospectiva dos últimos 20 anos – Edifício Chiado em Coimbra,
2007
XXVII Certamen de Minicuadros (Abril de 2006) em Alicante - Espanha;
Esteve representado na VIII e na X Bienal Int. de Vila Nova de Cerveira;
Foi 1º prémio exequo no I Concurso Pintura do INATEL, em 1992.
Exposições
London - March / 2009 - On CDOs and Double Clubs - AUGUST art
Malta - 2009 Malta International Art Biennale - Painting Distinction
Figueira da Foz - CAE - 22/Jan. a 25 Fev - 2009 - www.iczero.org
Madeira - Centro das Artes Casa das Mudas, Dez/08-Mar/09
Coimbra - Casa da Esquina - Dez/08 - www.iczero.org
Coimbra – Out/08 – Galeria ICONE - www.iczero.org
Chile – Out/08 – INFRAleve - Arte digital
Austrália –Set-Out/08 - Digital Fringe Festival – Arte digital
Funchal – Set /Out /08 - MIAB- MADEIRA INTERNATIONAL ART BIENAL
Paris - July/08 - Centre Culturel Christiane Peugeot - Malta Talent
Guarda - Jan/Fev/2008 - IC0 Actores urbanos - TMG
GHANA -Accra - Nov./2007 - International Art Exposition
Lisboa - Out/ 2007 (15-31) - Ordem dos Médicos
Malta - Maio a Out/ 2007-International Art Biennale
Luxembourg - Junho /07 - COMMISSION EUROPÉENNE
Coimbra - 15Março /5 Maio 2007, Edifício Chiado –Exp. Individual
Coimbra - 2/Março-5Abril, Quebra Club
ISRAEL - Haifa - Dez/06 - "Do not forget - Lebanon, July 2006!"
USA - Washington - Nov/06 - TreasurePostcards
Funchal - 3 a 18/Nov/06 - Museu da Electricidade - Casa da Luz
Coimbra -7 a 23 de Nov/06- FONLAD - Festival de Artes Digitais
Biennale 3000 São Paulo-2006- www.biennale3000saopaulo.org
Póvoa Lanhoso – Agosto/06 - Galeria do Theatro - Salão Aberto A.P.
Malta - Jul/06 - Mediterranean Conference Centre- Exp. Colectiva
Elda –Alicante, España - Abril/06 - XXVII Certamen de Minicuadros
Funchal – Out /05 - Tivoli Ocean Park
Funchal – Set /05 - MIAB - MADEIRA INTERNATIONAL ART BIENAL
Coimbra – Mar /05 – QuebraClub – Exp.Ind.
Braga – Jan /05 – Casa da Pedra Cavalgada – Exp. Ind.
Lisboa - Out /04 -Hotel Tivoli Tejo – Exp. Ind.
Póvoa Lanhoso – Agosto/04 - Galeria do Theatro - salão Aberto A.P.
Póvoa Lanhoso – Julho/04 – Fura-Café - Exp. Ind.
Coimbra - Maio/04 Hotel Dona Inês - Exp. Ind.
Coimbra - Abrl /04 Galeria Bar Quebra Costas- Exp. Ind.
Cerveira - Agt /99- X Bienal Int. Vila Nova de Cerveira
Coimbra - Abrl /99 - Galeria Bar Quebra Costas- Exp. Ind.
IPJ 98/99- Ciclo de expos. pelos IPJ, c/ o apoio do projecto Todos Diferentes Todos Iguais.
(Coimbra, Braga, Bragança, Vila Real, Viana do Castelo, Povoa Varzim, Viseu, Aveiro, Guarda)
Coimbra -Out /97 - Bar URSS - Exp. Ind..
Cerveira -Agt /95 - VIII Bienal de Vila Nova de Cerveira
Coimbra- Abrl /94 - Galeria Bar Califa - Exp. Ind.
Lisboa - Out /92 - I Concurso Pintura Inatel (1ºprémio exequo )
Guimarães- Out /91- Casa do Arco - Exp.Ind.
Coimbra - Out /90 - IPJ - Exp. Individual.
Coimbra - Out /84 CAP - Exp. Anual de Sócios