About the work

For ten years Pimentão has sought to open the horizon of the drawing and its conventions to other dimensions, other processes and other tools and his work refuses any hierarchy between drawing and sculpture, intent and improvisation. He is interested in ways of making connections between seemingly disconnected things, and the role of chance in this. He has used the procedure of black out poetry in other works before, but here he took a page of text and plucked from it 3 words: ‘toward’, ‘relation’, ‘rehearsal.’ He then worked out their location on the page and typed them onto a sheet of paper. This way, there are no hidden words. He coated the paper in concrete, mixed with a graphite-like powder, and used graphite stick to coat the concrete in graphite.

Date and country of birth

1973, PT

About the artist

Born 1973 Lisbon, Diogo Pimentão lives and works in London. Graduated from BA Fine Art, Ar.Co at Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual, Lisbon (1995); and Advanced Course Drawing, Ar.Co at Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual, Lisbon (1998).

Pimentão is best known for his experimental works on paper but also works with video and performance, a combination of mediums all orbiting around a very personal notion of drawing. The categorical boundaries between drawing, performance, installation, sculpture, photography and language are stretched and complicated in his practice. His works do not aim to represent extrinsic concepts, but rather entreat viewers to consider the materiality of their components. However, unlike the Minimalism of the movement’s forebears, in which, as Frank Stella famously noted, “What you see is what you see”, Pimentão’s works are deceptive in their apparent simplicity.

His work is held in public and private collections including Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris; Pomeranz Collection, Vienna; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; MONA, Museum of Old and New Art, Berriedale; Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; Serralves Foundation, Porto; and European Central Bank, Berlin.

Selected exhibitions include Dessiner à rebours, Monographic Exhibition, FRAC Rouen, Normandie (2020); Loud Whisper, Solo Show, Gallery Rocio Santa Cruz, Barcelona (2019); Drawing Body, Solo Show, Cristina Guerra Gallery, Lisbon (2019); Drawing Positions, Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos CAB, Burgos (2019); Constellations: a choreography of minimal gestures, Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon (2019); Spatial Flux, JoAnn Gonzalez Hickey Collection, Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, Colorado (2018); (pre)Textos, Foundation Otazu, Navarra (2018); Private Choices, Centrale For Contemporary Art, Bruxelles (2018); Quote/ Unquote Entre apropriação e Diálogo, MAAT Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon (2017); New Acquisitions, Serralves Foundation, Porto (2016); Papier XL, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2016); Disequilibrium Displacement, IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2015); Pliage/Fold, Gagosian Gallery, Paris (2014); Oblique Gravity, Solo Show, Yvon Lambert, Paris (2013); and Infinite Fold, Gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris (2010).

Awards include fellowships at Aide individuelle à la création, DRAC Ile-de-France, Paris (2010); and Fundação Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2003 and 2016).