I am amazed at how the stuff that painters use to make paintings, which is quite of the material world, inert and lifeless, can achieve, through the act of painting, the illusion of belonging to a different plane of existence.
Hélio Luís (b. 1980, Portugal) is a self-taught artist from Lisbon, whose large format-paintings depict a space between reality and the imagination. Sourcing from literature, photography, and archival cinema, Luís confronts fraught and complex legacies such as the presence of colonialism and the “exotic” within European art and Art History, contextualizing them within the contemporary world. Luís’ gestural handling of paint ranges from the subdued to the boldly expressionistic, the technical application and materiality taking a foreground in his practice. Vibrant hues and discernible layers are juxtaposed with a refined, traditional figurativism— a collision of the past and present on the canvas.
Images: Hélio Luís' studio. Photo: Jorge Vaz Gomes. Hélio Luís in the studio. Photo: Jorge Vaz Gomes
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Fresh Nature
Jul 14 - Aug 12, 2023Kutlesa is delighted to announce Fresh Nature, the second and final group exhibition this year. The exhibition brings together 12 contemporary artists and will be on view at the gallery’s...Read more -
Hélio Luís
Beyond Taprobana Feb 18 - Mar 19, 2022Kutlesa is pleased to present Beyond Taprobana, an exhibition of new paintings by the Lisbon-based painter Hélio Luís, on view at the gallery's location. This will be the artist's first...Read more
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Hélio Luís on Juxtapoz
Art & Culture Magazin Feb 18, 2022“Beyond Taprobana” is a line from the Lusiad, a Classical epic poem written by the Portuguese XVI century poet Camões. Taprobana was an ancient Greek...Read more -
Hélio Luís joins Kutlesa
Announcing global representation of the Lisbon-based artist Jan 3, 2022We are delighted to announce that we now represent Hélio Luís exclusively worldwide. In February, Luís will hold his first solo exhibition with Kutlesa in...Read more
