Pedro Cabrita Reis

Biography

Cabrita was born in 1956 in Lisbon, the city where he currently lives and works. His work has steadily received international acknowledgement, thus becoming crucial and decisive for the understanding of sculpture from the mid-1980’s onwards. His complex work can be characterized by an idiosyncratic philosophical and poetical discourse embracing a great variety of means: painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, and installations composed of industrial and found materials and manufactured objects. By using simple materials that are submitted to constructive processes, Cabrita recycles almost anonymous reminiscences of primordial gestures and actions repeated in everyday life.

The complex theoretical and formal diversity of the work of Cabrita proceeds from an anthropological reflection, which is contrary to the reductionism of sociological discourse. In fact, it is on silences and indagations that the work of Cabrita is based and built on.

Pedro Cabrita Reis participated in important international exhibitions, such as Documenta IX and XIV in Kassel in 1992 and 2017, the 21th and 24th São Paulo Biennales, respectively in 1994 and 1998, in the Aperto of the Venice Biennale in 1997. In 2003, he represented Portugal in the Venice Biennale, in 2013 he presented “A Remote Whisper”, 55th Biennale de Venezia and participated in the Xème Biennale de Lyon, “The Spectacle of the Everyday”, Lyon, 2009. In 2022 Cabrita presented in the Tuileries “Les Trois Grâces” commissioned by the Louvre Museum, and on the occasion of the 59th Venice Biennale Cabrita Reis presents “Field” at Chiesa di San Fantin.

Selected solo exhibitions

“Field”, Chiesa de San Fantin, por ocasião da 59ª Bienal de Veneza, 2022;
“Les Trois Grâces”, Louvre Tuilleries, Paris, 2022;
“Cabrita – Cabinet d’amateur”, CAC Malaga, Malaga, 2020;
“A roving gaze”, Serralves, Porto 2019;
“Work (always) in progress”, CGAC, Santiago de Compostela 2019;
“Pedro Cabrita Reis”, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich 2019;
“Pedro Cabrita Reis – La Forêt (Marseille)”, MUCEM, Marseille 2018;
“Col-Lecció per Amor a L’Art. Ornament = Delicte?”, Bombas Gens Centre d’Art, Valencia 2017;
“Parcours”, Art Basel, Basel’s Münsterplatz, Basel 2017;
“Das pequenas coisas”, Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar, Lisboa 2017;
“A casa de Coimbra – anozero’15 – um lance de dados, Bienal de Arte Contemporânea de Coimbra”, Sala da Cidade, Refeitório do Convento de Santa Cruz, Coimbra, 2015;
“Fallen and Standing”, Kewenig Galerie, Palma de Mallorca, 2016;
“Show me your wound – TEFAF Maastricht”, Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre (MECC) 2016;
“Art Unlimited / Basel 2016”, Halls Messe Basel, Hall 2.1, Basel 2016;
“La casa di Roma – L’Albero della Cuccagna”, MAXXI – Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo, Rome, 2015;
“Pedro Cabrita Reis”, Konkrete Mehr Raum!, Osnabrück, 2015;
“Pedro Cabrita Reis”, Kewenig Galerie, Berlin, 2015;
“Herbarium (Madrid)”, Galeria Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid, 2015;
“A few drawings, a façade inside and a possible staircase”, The Arts Club, Chicago, 2015;
“Les lieux fragmentés”, Hotel des Arts, Toulon, 2015;
“Fourteen paintings, the preacher and a broken line”, The Power Plant, Toronto, 2014;
“The London angles”, Sprovieri Gallery, London, 2014;
“Alguns nomes”, Galeria Mul.ti.plo, Rio de Janeiro, 2014;
“Lifted Gaze”, De Vleeshal, Middelburg, 2014;
“A Remote Whisper”, Palazzo Falier, Venice, 2013;
“States of Flux – Pedro Cabrita Reis”, Tate Modern, London, 2011-2013;
“One after another, a few silent steps” (itinerary exhibition), Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 2009 – Carré D’Art, Nîmes, 2010 – Museum for Contemporary Art, Leuven, 2011 – Museu Colecção Berardo, Lisbon, 2011;
“Deposição”, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, 2010;
“La Línea del Volcán”, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, 2009;
“Pedro Cabrita Reis”, Fondazione Merz, Torino, 2008;
“True Gardens #6”, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, 2008;
“La ciudad de adentro”, OPA, Guadalajara, 2007;
“Pedro Cabrita Reis”, MACRO, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Roma, 2006;
“True Gardens #3 (Dijon)”, FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon, 2004;
“Stillness”, Camden Arts Centre, London, 2004;
“Sometimes one can see the clouds passing by”, Kunsthalle Bern, 2004.