Car Wash Animals

Galeria Duarte Sequeira is pleased to announce “Car Wash Animals”, a solo exhibition by Portuguese artist Ricardo Passaporte. For his first solo presentation with the gallery, Ricardo Passaporte brings together a series of new paintings that depict close-up portraits of various animals. Engaging with the repetitiveness and impulsivity of graffiti and with references to Outsider Art, the artist draws attention to the hand-drawn, homespun nature of their creation. The inspiration behind each painting derives from various sources and found images, all requesting a certain engagement and competing for our attention. The Lisbon-based artist selects imagery sourced online, from mass media and advertising, from navigating around Google maps in street view and others from physically browsing shop labels and vitrines; many times, even canvas art gems found in thrift stores around Lisbon serve as potential inspiration for his works. Through this exploration, Passaporte highlights the essential role that such images have come to symbolise in our modern world and raises questions that consider the very nature of making art and the dichotomies between the mass-produced and the uniquely singular art object. Ricardo Passaporte (b. 1987, Lisbon, Portugal) is an artist living and working in Lisbon. Recent exhibitions include ´Best in Show´, Steve Turner, LA; ´If dogs don’t go to heaven, I want to go where they go´, L21 Gallery, Palma de Mallorca, Spain; ´I hold the wheel to let it go´, Galerie Clemens Gunzer, Kitzbühel, Austria; ´Exciting love´, Ruttkowski68, Paris, France; ´It was a very good day´, Eduardo Secci Contemporary, Florence, Italy; ´Mixed pickles 4´, Michael Horbach Foundation, Cologne, Germany; ´Bech Risvig collection´, Vestjyllands Kunstpavillion, Videbæk, Denmark; ´Quanto tempo falta?´, Câmara Municipal do Porto, Oporto, Portugal.