Artist: Pedro Matos
Exhibition title: Less Than Objects
Venue: Underdogs, Lisbon, Portugal
Date: February 19 – April 2, 2016
Photography: Bruno Lopes , images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Underdogs, Lisbon
On the face of it, the body of works presented in Less Than Objects seems, in all, to explore only the domain of abstraction, but what Pedro Matos shows us here is that this abstraction contains, too, the representation of something. Weaving a skilful reflection based on undervalued elements present in the material reality, of both human and natural origin, that surrounds us, the exploration which the artist undertakes of the interstices between representation and abstraction expresses an intentional articulation between one and the other that seeks to elevate the latter to a status in all equal to that of the former. By recreating and transposing disparaged material elements to a space of aesthetic contemplation, the artist translates the abstract quality of the texture of the random, of imperfection, of decay and mutation, as well as the existing correlations between human action and the effect of nature, into proposals that suggest their sublimation and acceptance.
Working the depuration of these frontier elements, of this formal and conceptual ambiguity present in the reality of the objects he highlights, Pedro Matos seeks to make us focus our gaze on that which frequently, in its original context, is ignored, stressing the singular and ephemeral beauty it contains in itself. “Less than Objects” is, in this way, an indagation into the nature of elements that are not really complete objects, but also into the intangible issues they contain, into their quality as conduits for ideas or aggregators of content, into, in short, the contemplation of a poetic significance that transcends their physical appearance.
–Miguel Moore
Pedro Matos, To make something that acted entheogenically, 2016
Pedro Matos, Praise for poets and other artists, 2016
Pedro Matos, I was waiting for a rail replacement bus in Hackney Wick, 2016
Pedro Matos, Accidents, Failure and something else, 2016
Pedro Matos, Under a pile of winter, 2016
Pedro Matos, Morning stretch, 2016
Pedro Matos, Fixed Income, 2016
Pedro Matos, Between dawn and the North Wind, 2016
Pedro Matos, Early morning mist, 2016
Pedro Matos, never a place, but a new way…, 2016
Pedro Matos, summoned by the networks of meanings surrounding these objects and images, 2016
Pedro Matos, Deeply Ordered Chaos, 2016
Pedro Matos, Efforts to damage and deconstruct, 2016
Pedro Matos, Accidents, Failure and something else, 2016