'Over a career spanning practically two decades, in which he has dedicated himself to a variety of artistic mediums, Pedro Henriques (Porto, 1985) has continually explored concepts pertaining to visual culture, reflecting on the way how, at a time marked by the rise of technology and digital media, we produce, consume and enable images to circulate.

The title of his Serralves’ exhibition paraphrases his practice in exemplary fashion. It is no coincidence that resorting to two words with opposing, or contradictory meanings, is a recurring approach when it comes to naming his pieces and exhibitions: Henriques, here presenting at Serralves Museum a judicious selection of works from the last two decades in mediums as diverse as sculpture, drawing and printmaking, broaching painting and industrial engraving, with little attention paid to chronological order or specificity of material – in a purposeful juxtaposition we would almost call rhapsodic – is an artist whose practice can be defined as an unceasing confluence of contradictions. Or to be more specific: the three-dimensional aspect of his sculptures does not necessarily reflect depth, while the two-dimensionality of the prints explores precisely this; the apparently unpremeditated expressivity of his drawings (spasms) is accompanied and set in motion by meticulous, rational processes (squares); the manual coexists alongside industrial methods; the swiftness of gesture is held in check by repetition and procedural multiplication; the recourse to technology, which appears to adapt effortlessly to the contemporary visual landscape, is called into question by using digital tools considered old-fashioned. We can say that Pedro Henriques’ practice is an apt metaphor for the idea that chance is something we must be rigorously prepared for.”

This calculated confluence spanning three of the four galleries where the exhibition takes place, of works from different series made in different years, distinct in material and language, serves a variety of purposes: to ponder with hindsight what is unexpectedly common to such a diversity of appearances, finding new associations and readings for pieces till now understood in a particular way, while taking even further the game of mirrors each project engages in, mirroring, reflecting and refracting yet more. What emerges is that we find coherence in its very contradiction, and homogeneity in spite of the sheer diversity of pieces: the artist has created a lighting system that spans all four galleries and which perceptibly functions as a simultaneously autonomous, physical and rigorously functional element (specifically for the purpose of highlighting certain works).

This exhibition by Pedro Henriques will be his first solo showing in an institutional context, in what is nonetheless a return to Serralves after having been one of the four artists selected for the Novo Banco Revelação prize in 2014.

The exhibition, produced by Serralves Museum, has been curated by Ricardo Nicolau and coordinated by Giovana Gabriel.