The return of the Poet

“Viagem no tempo”/”Time Travel”
«The rich and brilliant capacity by the human being of being able to “live” the past, history and time makes us great dreamers. Time travelling projects memories in our imagination which leads us to dream… let us dream…» (Antonino)

Antonino Neves, Portuguese painter, born in Coimbra on 18 November 1962, holds a university diploma in Painting from ARCA/ETAC (Coimbra, Portugal), a post-graduate in History of Art from Lusíada University (Lisbon), has developed autonomous work in plastic explorations with oil, oil pastel and mixed pigments mixed with oil and turpentine, from the study of the human figure in different anatomical and poetic expressions. He has developed several projects for art biennials, individual and collective exhibitions in Portugal, such as the VIII international art biennial of Vila Nova de Cerveira and the III art biennial of Foundation Cupertino de Miranda, Vila Real, Portugal, and travelling exhibitions outside the country, namely in Italy. He has collaborated with different works in didactic art and design books with Plátano publishing house, and his work is presented at the Museum Santos Rocha, Figueira da Foz, Portugal, as well as in many private collections. He was assistant teacher of Drawing for ten years in painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, hardware design and graphical design at ARCA/ETAC (presently EUAC – University School of Arts of Coimbra). He participated in the arts event Cenografias.site specific event, at Quarteirão das Artes of the Cooperativa Teatro dos Castelos, Montemor-o-Velho; “Rota das Artes” [Route of the Arts] – travelling exhibition at the Municipalities of Coimbra, Cantanhede, Penela, Ansião, Figueiró-dos-Vinhos and Guarda. He participated with works at the installation “Ant’s Hill, a Human Renewal” (Formigueiro) at Museum-House Bissaya Barreto at Coimbra, at the exhibition “D. Catarina of Bragança – contemporary images” with the work «The Return of D. Catarina of Bragança» and coordinated the setting up of the exhibition at the Palace of Bemposta – Lisbon (former Paço da Rainha, present-day Military Academy). Nowadays, he is permanent teacher at the Avelar Brotero Secondary School, Coimbra, where he teaches the subject Drawing A; he is also finishing his doctoral thesis at the University of Salamanca, Faculty of History of Art/Fine Arts.

In this work, Antonino takes us by a current of hyper realistic contemporary art enough actual, where the body obeys a specific and complete mechanism: movement and nature reflect the motive trace of life. A classicism ubiquitous,
conveying the passion for line and color that does not obscure the persisting composition.