Pedro Cabrita Reis

Working across a wide range of media, from drawing and painting to sculpture, Pedro Cabrita Reis’ multifaceted oeuvre has a haunting presence and poetic narrative. It is characterized by a captivating clarity that is due to the simple and basic, often found materials he uses, such as steel, concrete, glass, neon light or wood.

The artist’s sensibility for our complex relationship with the environment, for the fractures and peripheries of our utilitarian society, is brought to the fore in his oeuvre. Materials like the remains of building rubble or disused doors and windows for the sculptural work, and the figures in their solitude and the utopian landscapes in the recent oil paintings, get a new dignity and meaning. Intertwined in various groups of works, Pedro Cabrita Reis intellectually, sculpturally and emotionally creates and opens up new spaces.

Pedro Cabrita Reis (b. 1956 in Lisbon, Portugal) is a foremost visual artist of his generation and one of Portugal’s most internationally renowned artists.

He represented Portugal at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003) and participated at the 55th Venice Biennale with the site-specific work, A Remote Whisper (2013). His work was presented at the 10th Biennale de Lyon: “The Spectacle of the Everyday” (2009), the 21st and 24th São Paulo Biennales (1994, 1998) and documenta IX in Kassel (1992).

Recent public artworks by Pedro Cabrita Reis include the monumental sculpture Central Tejo in Lisbon (2018). His works are featured in the collections of many prominent museums, both national and international, including Tate Modern in London, the Gulbenkian in Lisbon, The Arts Club of Chicago, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Serralves Museum in Porto, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon, S.M.A.K. in Ghent, Centre Pompidou in Paris, IVAM in Valencia, CAC in Málaga, Kunst Museum Winterthur in Switzerland, the Jumex Collection in Mexico City, the Ontario Art Gallery in Toronto and the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.