BLACK CAT

Description

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

António Azenha’s work is based on pieces built using toys, iron, polyurethane, acrylic and other materials (some of them of considerable size), which the artist then transforms into “gigantic” figures such as a rooster, rocking horses, giant pawns, Donald Duck or a stuffed bear. The concept of re-design materializes in Azenha’s work through larger scale toys, themselves shaped by a texture of small toys, resulting in an aesthetic experience that takes us back to the imagination of childhood.

The basic concept is the reuse and redesign of toys, which have already had their lifetime, with the aim of expanding children’s imagination and prolonging the longevity of the form-function of the toy and the action of playing – that of making children and adults dreaming – a function they share with Art.

António Azenha was born in Angola, in 1964, but grew up between Figueira da Foz and Coimbra. With a degree in Painting and a Master’s Degree in Aesthetic Communication, he began exhibiting in the 1980s, participating in various festivals and exhibitions with works of drawing, painting, happening, performance, video and sculpture. In 2009/10, created the work entitled “O meu peão, deles e nosso”, beginning a work marked by children’s imagination and collective generational iconography, which culminated in the exhibition “Toys Replay”. In 2016/17 starts the “Yellow Bricks” exhibition at the Municipal House of Culture of Coimbra, whose basic concept is the reuse and redesign of toys on a larger scale. More recently, he presents the exhibition “Interact Buddha Party”, an artistic installation based on ancient Chinese stories and legends. Between 2019 and 2020 he presents the individual and collective exhibitions “Labirint(eus)” at 22 SCUC, “Oceanfalls” at the Water Museum and at the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra, “My feminine side” at the Dionísio Pinheiro Foundation and “Perfeita Libação-Art transforming” at the Anadia Wine Museum.