Paulo Robalo

(Portuguese – 1965)

Sumo XIII seconds

September 8^th 2020

This is a short-term exhibition presenting an 8 drawings series, which were the basis for a cycle of paintings that led the artist to Japan and took him over three years to complete, entitled Sumô (2007). This cycle represented Sumo wrestlers in combat, in their ritualistic postures, details and gestures. Showing the apparent paradox of the lightning-speed of the combats and the physical density of the bodies that execute them.  

“On a square-base pyramid made of adobe (doyho), constructed in accordance to the cardinal directions, two wrestlers (Rikishi) with restrained gestures and a still gaze, attempt to put their formidable opponents out of a circle with 4,55 meters in diameter. Just a few moments before, under a Shintoist roof, in a ceremonial way, both wrestlers threw salt, purifying souls, gargled water, and drew honour codes with highly choreographed gestures. These semi-naked gods, with hair slicked back with camomile oil (ô-icho), locked in their voluminous 180kg frames, move with buoyancy and precision through a set of seventy positions. Presiding the match, the referee (gyogi) sports his colourful kimono, and the audience is roused as they wait eagerly the clash that may bestow upon the Rikishi the highest honour and rank in Sumô wrestling – the Yokozuna.

The attentive observer, a painter from a foreign culture, immerses himself in a reinforced seduction, and searches for both a research manner and a formal experimental method in order to archive these moments. Using varied sized supports, he applies painting techniques that may remind one of high-end cuisine. The main ingredient is bee’s wax, melted with natural pigments with high chromatic contrast. The drawing in always at the base of things, and guides the composition in which a fertile plethora of materials comes together, in a diet that includes from resins to shellac, from stone dust to Bitumen of Judea.

Under the impression of that different, yet avid gaze, he rummages through this emergence of an ancestral culture snippets that may be translated as something familiar, as something that may help him arrive at more easily identified spaces – such as scenic design or installation. In this almost-obsessive search for the rigorous representation of such collected yet dynamic gestures, the painter aims other gazes with which he can share the nobility of an act that takes no more than 13 seconds in average but also, at the same time, takes place in a much broader and higher poetic time.” (Paulo Robalo)

Paulo Robalo - CV

Paulo Robalo was born in 1965 in Lisbon, where he still lives and works. He graduated in Paiting at the Fine Arts Faculty, and has been exhibiting regularly his work up until the mid-1990s. From that moment on, he started to delve into, and study, Contemporary Scenography, fusing together painting and installation, in an integrated form of art creation. He is a regular teacher of drawing at the António Arrioi High School. He taught Scenography and coordinate the Disciplines of the Spectacle module at the Chapitô school for over ten years. Since 1007 he has been a collaborator and the coordinator of the Backdrop Painting workshops at ACE, in Porto, as well as several Contemporary Scenography Design subjects at Restart. He also teaches at the World Academy.

In 2015, he was the co-founder of the Cultural Association Passevite, which acts as a studio/gallery with a unique, yearly program and reflection on the arts, inbcluding many projects of paiting, drawing, artistic residencies and site specific projects. In 2002 he founded, with Maria Barroco, “Arte Míope” (“Penumbra”), a project that aims to see farther, zeroing in on the creation and development of transnational art projects.

2020

Eixo Arte – Virtual Collective and Solo Show with the project entitled “The Machine that Types Thoughts”. Niterói, Brasil.
Participation at the Mostra 2020 , Instituto da Água, Lisbon, Portugal.
S.O.S sem limites, a collective virtual exhibition in Lisbon; physically re-presented athr the Fórum da Maia. Porto,P ortugal.
“Trajectórias (s)”, 100 years of artistic teaching, a collective show from António Arroio School at the SNBA, Lisbon, Portugal.


2019

“Descuidados de Deus #2 – Juízo Final”, Galeria Passevite. Lisbon, Portugal.
“ WAARDEkloos/WORTHless.” Haarlem, Holland.
Performance and multimedia installation at the SCHOK MANIFESTATION 2019. Holland.
Solo exhibition at the Play Room gallery. Zaadam, Holland.
Presentation of the book A pintura deixa raiz(“Painting Grows Roots“) at the Galeria Passevite. Lisbon,Portugal.
Solo exhibition "A pintura deixa raiz" (“Painting Grows Roots“) at Galeria Malangatana,  ISPA. Lisbon, Portugal.


2018

Solo exhibition “Descuidados de Deus Galeria” (“The Abandoned by God Gallery”), at Passevite. Lisbon, Portugal.

Solo exhibition "Pintar é escrever com os olhos” (“Painting is to Write With One’s Eyes”), at Biblioteca Camões. Lisbon, Portugal.


2017

“Cabinet des Curiosités – Exposição dos Esquecimentos” (“Cabinet of Curiosities – Exhibiting Forgetfulness”) Galleria Passevite. Lisbon. Portugal.
Cascais art District “Eu sei que os meus olhos estão abertos” (“I Know My Eyes Are Open”).Cascais, Portugal.
Oxalá Foundation Ona - Dual show Paulo Robalo /Ahmed Hajoubi. Casablanca, Marrocos.
Schok Manifestation Project “The thoughts typing machine “ at the Milk factory. Amesterdam, Holland.
Cabinet des Curiosités –Exposição dos Esquecimentos (“Cabinet of Curiosities – Exhibiting Forgetfulness”) - Studio Live with sounds, image and performance. At the Loja da Atalaia. Lisbon (9 meses ), Portugal.
Esplanada Mosca da Fruta- Installation – “Projeto para modificar o espaço em 8 meses” (“A Project To Change the Space in 8 Months”). Lisbon, Portugal

2016

“The Machine that Types Thoughts” Paulo Robalo with Luís Robalo and David Diogo https://amaquinadeteclarpensamentossite.wordpress.com/

2015

Agent: Galeria Passevite.

2014

” Toro Expo” Colectif Saint Sever. France
“Himmelsspigel - O Espelho do Céu” Paulo Robalo e LiloKrasten - Plan.d. Dusseldorf, Germany.
” IN/OUT” site specific light installation - who gave us eyes to look at the stars? Paulo Robalo and João Baptista - Plan.d. Dusseldorf, Germany.
“Pintar é falar consigo mesmo” (“To Paint is to Talk to Oneself”) - at the Casa das Artes de Tavira. Algarve, Portugal.
5th Edition Opening of Artists Studios - Instalation with Mathieu Sodore. Castelo d'If. Portugal.