Gonçalo Preto

Lives and works in New York, NY, USA

Artist statement

My work examines human consciousness through the scope of Painting based on three nuclear elements: Light, Time, and Memory. I am interested in the medium’s significance as a representation system capable of carrying and conveying meaning. I draw on the vivid energy of silence and stillness, and I am particularly interested in depicting perceptual effects, such as the eye’s reaction to light, focus, and abstraction. I aspire to create images that capture the elusive appearance of collective lost memories. Through conscientious editing, I reduce paintings to their essence: minimal and recognizable, puzzling yet welcoming, as a genuine invitation to slow down. The most recent work follows my exploration of psychological portraits or cerebral topographies through representational paintings. These painted snapshots of an intimate, psychological state draw from various visual sources: visions that surface in my memory as suggestive representations of neural activity, dreams, and fictional images that intertwine with the viewer to create a narrative flow.

Artwork