Pedro, I met in Lisbon when I was living in Portugal back in 2018. He is a chill and soft-spoken guy with real hobbies and a solid family life. He surfs during his free time which gave me a lot of common ground with him - we’ve bonded over sessions and it is always a pleasure to hang out with him. Pedro was also the first artist I met in Portugal who was actually making things happen. His work makes me feel calm like his personality and those old surfing days.
Batista is a Portuguese painter inspired by light and shadow. His works are contemporary snapshots created with a mirage-like effects that invites viewers to decipher the scenes before them, sparking their imagination and wonder. In my favorite of his paintings, a ghostly figure of a man on a horse is rendered in light grey while the horse appears in full color. At first the man is barely perceivable unless one looks closely. Pedro plays with perspective and perception and offers many interactive possibilities by allowing viewers to enter the work and discover the narrative. Like many Impressionist painters, he is a master of light and of creating scenes that are cinematic, like photographic snapshots taken of a moment offering just enough information to suggest meaning while lending his work an equally surreal and transcendental quality.
INTO
BATISTA