Artist Statement: BIOGRAPHY
Pedro De Kastro is born in Lisbon in 1971. At 19, he enlists himself as volunteer into the Portuguese Paratroopers. After several driftings, he reinitiates his autodidact studies. In 2001, PDK goes to Sarajevo representing Portugal in Drawing at the 10th Biennial of Young Creators of Europe and the Mediterranean. A few months later, he leaves the Old World towards Brazil where he lives until now
ARTIST STATEMENT
Since I was a child that I am tormented by hellish nightmares where Lisbon is a world of shadows shipwrecked at the End of Time. These dark dreams persist until today, now with sublime visions regarding the Capitals of the World but they are so real that I feel like I have already been in that forgotten future
I create monumental imaginary landscapes where well known cities become surreal sceneries fulfilled with a powerful message. Symbolic elements entwine around the aged World icons, insanely detailed and produced through European engraving and rendering techniques from the 18th century, although my visions are impregnated by the psycho-sociological, industrial and nuclear nightmares of our Third Millenium
You will collide into the Golden Gate Bridge, the Chrysler Building or the Arc of Triumph, among so many others, merged in a far future where you don’t only find yourself in a surrounding scenery so familiar in your present, but you can also see how the mighty hammer of Time will work on its towers, avenues and bridges in many ages to come as no one has never seen before
When we see a World’s hallmark made by man, deeply embedded in our collective memory and devoured by Time, Global Warming and War, our Imagination is strongly impacted, traveling without limits, transforming our own reality into another one much worse and possible. Nevertheless, still avoidable and strangely nostalgic
My art reflects on the contemporary situation of the planet, revealing in what our Earth can become. Through it, I show, or at least I try to show, in the middle of this nightmare, that the world where we live is, even with all the misfortunes that haunt it, a planet with beautiful things where one can live. Where one can see the sky. Where the sea is blue. Where the plants are green. Where the Sun shines. Where one can breath. For the time being
Among others, some exhibitions worth of note
2009 - Group exhibition Sacred Art – Visionary and Surrealist Art in the Lofthouse Gallery, Wessobrunn, Bavaria, Germany
2008 - Solo exhibition of Drawing and Engraving The Vertiginous World of Pedro De Kastro at the Moreira Salles Institute Gallery, Curitiba, Brazil
2008 - Solo exhibition of Drawing and Engraving The Vertiginous World of Pedro De Kastro at the Moreira Salles Institute Gallery, Porto Alegre, Brazil
2007 - Solo exhibition of Drawing and Engraving The Vertiginous World of Pedro De Kastro at the Moreira Salles Institute Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil
2001 - Solo exhibition of Drawing and Engraving Oniria at the Bairro Alto Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal
- Group exhibition of the 10th Biennial of Young Creators of Europe and the Mediterranean 2001, Sarajevo, Bosnia
1999 - Group exhibition of Engraving of the 5th International Biennial of Drawing and Graphic Arts - Masters of Graphic Arts, Györ, Hungary
1997 - Solo exhibition of Drawing and Engraving Norvune at the National Monument of the Discoveries, Lisbon, Portugal
- Group exhibition of Engraving of the International Print Triennial 97, Cracow, Poland
PRIZES
- Honor Mention in Drawing in the contest Art Scene 1999 promoted by the City Hall of Lisbon
- First place in Drawing in The 10th Biennial of Young Artists of Europe and Mediterranean 2001. PDK goes to Sarajevo, representing Portugal in Drawing at the 10th Biennial in Bosnia-Herzegovina, ex-Yugoslavia.
- Honor Mention in Illustration in Abril Publisher’s Prize 2004
- Honor Mention in Illustration in Abril Publisher’s Prize 2005
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Moreira Salles Institute – Brazil
Municipal Museum of Györ - Hungary
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Portugal, England, Germany, Italy, Brazil, United States
If you wish to contact Pedro De Kastro, please email contact@magnusmagazine.co.uk and put Contact Pedro De Kastro in the subject line.
Name://
Pedro De Kastro
Location://
Brazil Web Link://
www.pedrodekastro.com
Work:// - Bishop III
- The Avenue
- The Madmen
- The Cathedral
- Dementia
- Alpha and Omega
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