30 October - 5 December | Gallery 2
Rodrigues de Sousa evokes ideas from utopias, modernism, politics and literature, using simple forms. His works exist in a continuous space between abstraction and symbolism, legibility and illegibility. Forms can be ambiguous: they may contain meanings, schematically represent places, or simply be pure aesthetic elements. The artist frames this project as a question: are these ideas from the past still present today? Or are they only ghosts that live in their forms?
Sousa references architecture, paintings, places, or communities, real or fictional or even scientific theories. In essence, spaces or thoughts created with the aim of changing society. The distinct time frames of these references point to contrasts, similarities and contradictions within the history of European culture and its trace elements and variations in Australia.
Born in Lisbon, Portugal, Nuno Rodrigues de Sousa currently lives and works in Sydney. He studied painting at the University of Lisbon and holds an M.A. in Communication Science from the New University of Lisbon. Rodrigues de Sousa has shown his work in several museums, galleries and independent spaces across Portugal, Europe, Asia and Australia, including Macau Museum of Art, China, Australian Institute of Architects, Sydney, Firstdraft, Sydney, Quadrum Municipal Gallery, Lisbon, Berardo Collection, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon and Centre for Contemporary Art, Malaga, Spain.Occasionally Rodrigues de Sousa works in collaboration with the artist and software engineer Isabel Brison, as in the exhibition The Common Soil.
image: Nuno Rodrigues de Sousa, Nach Oben (upward), 2019. Installation comprehending one painting and floor sculptures, vinyl emulsion paint on Italian linen 2134 x 1219 mm, 48 x painted wood pieces Area: 2134 x 1219 mm. Courtesy of artist and CHAUFFEUR Sydney.