André Catarino

Portuguese visual artist based in Berlin.

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André Catarino explores subjects such as human-inflected landscapes and late-capitalist ruins, as well as the appropriation of other media composition techniques and reproduction systems (especially past photographic and cinematographic techniques). This places André Catarino’s work in a central vein of Western thinking and contemporary art, through which his work overlaps with diverse themes and the oeuvres of Atget, Walter Benjamin, and the Bechers.

According to Jean-Luc Nancy, a landscape is the opposite of a background, it is a pure surface, in a positive sense. Catarino explores such surfaces, in pristine shapes, in order to demand the reader-spectator's own task of sifting through the drawing and gaze upon the weighty timelessness beyond whatever human traces seem to impose themselves.

ArtConnect asked the winning artists to share with us a glimpse into their creative life to get a sense of their personal inspiration and artistic process.

How did you get started as an artist?

I always had a passion for drawing but it was only after starting my bachelor's degree in Fine Arts, that I realized that I wanted to take it seriously.

What are some of the central themes you pursue in your work?

Mainly through drawing the more represented themes are landscapes, abandoned buildings, ruins, and the relation between time, space, and memory.

Describe a typical day in the studio / wherever you make your work.

First thing, a cup of coffee. Second choosing music... Most of the time it's just long hours of drawing, trying to be focused, almost like in a meditation state.

What motivates you to make your art?

It's just a natural feeling. Get up and go do something you enjoy.