MARTINHO DIAS, (1968), was born in Trofa, near Porto, Portugal, where he lives and works. He has a degree in Fine Arts - Painting, from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto, since 1996.
The complexity and the multiple facets of the global world are my main fundamentals. Selecting and manipulating images, essentially from the press and popular magazines, I try to create a new suggested reality, a new narrative, open to the viewer. Resorting to the realism of the figures and the gestural abstraction, the paradox, the contrariety, the criticism or irony, what I do is unfold the reality, individual and collective, which is common to us, reconfiguring it in the plan of the canvas.
Along my journey as a painter, I have also developed ways of communication with different cultures, as well as other areas, particularly the music and their players. Projects like "Written Paintings" and "Pangea" (vídeo, currently in progress, involving entities and singers from 26 countries), they gave me the pleasure of collaboration of Kepa Junkera, Pauline Oliveros, Peter Ablinger, Gianluigi Trovesi, Robert Rich, Eurico Carrapatoso, Amélia Muge or António Victorino d'Almeida, among many others.
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SOLO AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection):
2011 - Art Pocket 2011, Gallery João Pedro Rodrigues, Oporto, Portugal; - CIRCUMSTANCE, São Bento Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal; - Group exhibition, Gallery Ao Longe o Mar, Viseu, Portugal; - “Art in Secret”, group exhibition, Leões Gallery, Oporto, Portugal; - ART PARIS, International Art Fair, Grand Palais, by Saatchi Online, Paris, France; - Perfection: Utopia of Women, collective exhibition, MOYA - Museum of Young Art, Palais Schönborn, Vienna, Austria;
2010 - 10th International Art Fair - ARTELisboa, by António Prates Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal; - “8th International Biennial of Arts of Marinha Grande”, by António Prates Gallery - Lisbon, Portugal; - “Cem República”, group exhibition, António Prates Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal; - Painting group exhibition, Military Club of Macao, Gallery 57, Macao, China; - Collective “CINEMA STORIES II”, Municipal Library Rocha Peixoto, Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal; - “The Flag – Peace&Love on the Global Village”, collective project, Denmark; - “Info-processing”, painting, Gallery 57, Leiria, Portugal; - Group exhibition, O Rastro Gallery, Figueira da Foz, Portugal;
2009 - Group exhibition, O Rastro-Algarve Gallery, Portugal; - STAGES, Del Veinte Gallery, Santander, Spain; - “16 years of complicity in art”, Cultural Arts Centre of Ponte de Sor, Portugal; - Painting, House-Museum Soledade Malvar, V. N. Famalicão, Portugal; - WRITTEN PAINTINGS, Servartes – Cultural Space, Oporto, Portugal;
2008 - Painting, Municipal Library of Ponte de Sor, Portugal; - "Dialogues and Monologues", O Rastro Gallery, Figueira da Foz, Portugal; - "arte x arte" - Bogotá08, Colombia;
2007 - WRITTEN PAINTINGS, Santos Rocha Museum, Figueira da Foz, Portugal; - NEW BODY, Servartes – Cultural Space, Oporto, Portugal; - APPLAUSE, São Bento Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal; - 2nd Internatioanl Art Fair artMADRID, by António Prates Gallery, Madrid, Spain; - Collective exhibition, António Prates Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal;
2006 - APPLAUSE, painting, Gallery Cañizares, Salvador / Bahia, Brazil; - 6th International Art Fair - ARTELisboa, FIL, by António Prates Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal; - BODY IN EXPRESSION, Servartes – Cultural Space, Oporto, Portugal; - NEW BODY, painting, Literary Club of Oporto, Oporto, Portugal;
2005 - 5th International Art Fair - ARTELisboa, Pedro Serrenho Gallery, FIL, Lisbon, Portugal; - Projected Images # Instalations, with Phill Niblock, Vitor Rua, Nuno Rebelo, each others, Casa dos Dias da Água, Lisbon, Portugal;
2004 - Collective exhibition, Electra Gallery, Oporto, Portugal; - “19th Biennial of Illustrations of Bratislava”, Slovak Republic;
2003 - INDISPOSITION, Santa Clara Gallery, Coimbra, Portugal;
2002 - 2nd Baviera Painting Prize, Museum of Transport and Communications, Oporto, Portugal; - 2nd Painting Biennial Young Art, Penafiel, Portugal;
2001 - Julio Resende National Prize, Gondomar, Portugal; - 11th International Biennial of Art of Vila Nova de Cerveira; Portugal;
2000 - 1st Painting Biennial Young Art, Penafiel, Portugal; - 3rd Biennial of Fine Arts of Marinha Grande, itinerant to La Granja, Spain;
1999 - "April Days Exhibition", Fundation of Cupertino de Miranda, V. N. de Famalicão, Portugal; - One of the representatives of Portugal in “The Winsor & Newton Worldwide Millennium Painting Competition” exhibited in The Mall Galleries, London; World Trade Center in Stockholm, Stockholm and United Nations Headquarters, New York; - Collective exhibition, Delaunay Gallery, Vila do Conde, Portugal - "11th Biennial of Avante Party", Seixal, Portugal;
AWARDS:
2010 - Silver Award - attribution by the virtual art gallery ArtMageur.com; 2007 - 1st Prize, BODY IN EXPRESSION, Espaço Servartes, Porto, Portugal; 2002 - Honor Mention, 2nd Painting Biennial Young Art, Penafiel, Portugal; 2000 - Honor Mention, 1st Painting Biennial Young Art, Penafiel, Portugal; 1983 - Honor Mention, “Shankar’s International Children’s Competition”, New Delhi, India. - 1st Prize in the competition “Santo Tirso seen by the young people”, Portugal.
OTHERS (selection):
– 2010, article in LUXOS TIME magazine, nº 66, July 2010, by Raquel Prates, Lisbon; – represented in "Annual Art Guide to the Internet - Top Websites 2010", by "NY Arts Magazine", New York; – 2009, article in EL MUNDO and El Diario Montanez, about the exhibition “Stages”, del Veinte Gallery, Santander, Spain; – article on the newspapers: O NOTICIAS da TROFA, JORNAL da TROFA, OPINIÃO PÚBLICA and CIDADE HOJE, about the exhibition “Martinho Dias, Painting”, House-Museum Soledade Malvar, V. N. Famalicão, Portugal; – represented in "NY Arts Annual Catalogue", 2009 by "NY Arts Magazine", New York; – 2008, article in O FIGUEIRENSE, about the exhibition “Dialogues and Monologues”, Gallery O Rastro, Figueira da Foz, Portugal; – 2007, radio interview by ANTENA 2, about the exhibition “Applause”, Gallery of São Bento, Lisbon, Portugal; – “Fictionalized Spectrum - or the ghost who disturbs”, by Hugo Barata, to the catalogue of the exhibition “Applause”, Gallery of São Bento, Lisbon, Portugal; – article in EL PUNTO DE LAS ARTES, year VI, nº 386, about the exhibition “Applause”, Gallery of São Bento, Lisbon, Portugal; – article on the weekly LER and DIÁRIO DE COIMBRA, about the exhibition “Written Paintings”, Museum of Santos Rocha, Figueira da Foz, Portugal; – 2006, TV interview by TV-UFBA, Salvador, Brazil, about the exhibition “Applause”, Gallery Cañizares, Bahia, Brazil; – “Vital Moments in the Work of Martinho Dias”, written by Ed Carlos Santana, Salvador/Bahia, about the exhibition “Applause”, Gallery Cañizares, Bahia, Brazil; – 2005, text by music critic and writer, Rui Eduardo Paes, about “Written Paintings”, project; – 2003, article in O DESPERTAR, Coimbra, about the exhibition “Indisposition”, Gallery Santa Clara, Coimbra, Portugal; – 1983, TV interview by RTP, Portugal, about “Shankar’s International Children’s Competition”, New Delhi, Índia.
Represented by:
– António Prates Gallery, Lisbon – São Bento/ ArtElection Gallery, Lisbon – O Rastro Gallery, Figueira da Foz
