Rui Sanches (Lisbon, 1954) has developed a distinctive body of work in the panorama of Portuguese sculpture since the early 1980s. His artistic practice, anchored in intersecting dialogues with art history, architecture and the human body, questions the core assumptions that underpin classical painting and contemporary sculpture, as he investigates phenomena of perception that challenge the viewer’s gaze and incites movement.

In parallel with his sculptures, Rui Sanches develops a drawings practice that depicts the sedimentation of time on the plane of paper, superimposing gestures over gesture, layer over layer. By establishing basic building principles explores in serial processes, Rui Sanches has developed a work of remarkable rigour that takes shape between plane and space, straight line and curve, logic and sensation, order and chaos. Rui Sanches: line and shape, body and machine examines different moments of continuity and rupture in the artist's career and establishes various points of contact between his work in sculpture and drawing. The exhibition includes a set of works held on deposit in the Serralves Collection, covering a period of three decades, including works from the 1980s that are directly related to classical and neoclassical painting themes, and works from the following decades that reveal an abstract approach to the body and to the human scale, establishing a relationship of proximity with the viewer.

This exhibition is part of the Touring Exhibitions Programme of the Serralves Collection, which aims to make the Foundation’s collection accessible to different audiences across the country.

Curated by Joana Valsassina