Beyond the Line. Works from the Serralves Collection

Beyond the Line. Works from the Serralves Collection presents a group of works that have recently been incorporated into the Collection: their selection was influenced by the two exhibitions dedicated to architecture, which are currently being held in the Siza Wing. Drawing is an intrinsic part of this set of works, constituting an attempt to bring together languages, architectural questions and visual arts.

The formalism of the works displayed is illusory, since their conceptual dimension is gradually revealed to us. Some are more directly related with architecture and its history, such as Nicolas Milhé's Meurtrière [Arrow slit], which is clearly an allusion to a medieval building structure, exploring the political function and value/meaning of architecture, or Dan Graham's Model B, which highlights the way in which the surrounding architectural vocabulary structures our way of seeing the world. While Vera Mota's Coluna [Column] refers to an architectural element, it also alludes to its relationship with the proportions of the human body, thus revealing the performative component of the artist's work; Calapez, on the other hand, tests the limits of the act of drawing — the lines in Rodado [Tire Mark] were obtained by passing a car over the canvas — and Luisa Cunha makes use of the angle formed by the built walls and by chance to determine the shape of her sculpture.

The plain colours and regular shapes of Philippe Van Snick's painting, the ethereal delicacy of Rei Naito's drawings and the observation of light explored in Sophie Whetnal's video correspond to a careful observation of the cosmos, its cycles and its phenomena.

The apparent coldness of the lines and the smooth surface of Daniel Steegman Mangrané's piece encapsulates the complex geometrical structures present in nature, particularly in the biosphere, an area of particular interest to the artist, contrasting with the organic form, texture and colour of Arlene Shechet's sculpture.

The preparatory drawings for Fernanda Fragateiro's sculpture, installed in the corridor connecting the two wings, testify to the importance of this discipline in artistic thinking and establish a direct connection with the architecture of the building itself. Finally, Nedko Solakov incorporates handwritten text and storytelling into his drawing practice as a sometimes ironic, and even sarcastic, way of thinking about the world.

Pedro Calapez, Luisa Cunha, Fernanda Fragateiro, Dan Graham, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Nicolas Milhé, Vera Mota, Rei Naito, Arlene Shechet, Philippe Van Snick, Nedko Solakov, Sophie Whettnall


Organised by the Serralves Foundation—Museum of Contemporary Art, the is curated by Isabel Braga