We are pleased to share the opening of Characters and Players, a solo exhibition by João Penalva at Culturgest, Lisbon. Opening 17 April at 10 pm, the retrospective exhibition traces back to the mid-1990s, when João Penalva began developing a truly unique category of works. After years devoted to painting, his pieces started to grow in scale and incorporate a wide range of materials, such as photographs, videos, drawings, documents, slides, letters, and all kinds of notes and manuscripts. Although they resembled installations, that wasn’t quite their nature; the interactions between these materials didn’t aim to draw attention to the physical space of the gallery or to the concrete experience of its occupation. On the contrary: they established a fictional space, where texts and images contributed to the unfolding of narratives shaped by our curiosity and associative imagination—like being inside a cabinet d’amateur or an evidence room from which the inspector has stepped out.
Also opening 17 April at 5 pm: The Ormsson Collection, presented by João Penalva, at Pavilhão Branco, Lisbon. In 1997, at the Pavilhão Branco, the artist presented for the first time the exhibition “The Ormsson Collection,” an exceptional moment in his career. At that time, it was still uncommon for artists to take on curatorial roles, selecting and relating the objects on display themselves. This project therefore stood out for its innovative approach, as it detached the presentation of collections from the traditional figure of the curator and introduced a highly unconventional collection, marked by the diversity and singularity of its objects. In 2026, the exhibition is restaged in exactly the same way and in the same space for which it was originally conceived — Pavilhão Branco — and a new, updated version of its catalogue is also published.
Opening 17 April at 10 pm, Characters and Players will be on view until 12 July 2026.
Opening 17 April at 10 pm, The Ormsson Collection, presented by João Penalva will be on view until 28 June 2026.
