In the artistic practice of Paulo Lisboa the close complicity between the drawing, the materials and optical devices in particular stand out and form the basis from which the artist constantly experiments with his own aesthetic and perceptive capacities.

The imagery convokes a prolonged genealogy of visual representation modes, from the myths on the origins of the image (and art), to the use of the camera obscura and to, more recently, modern devices from the eras of technology and electricity that have widened the horizon in terms of possibilities for capturing and projecting images – such as photography, film and video.

Moreover, one can also agree that this work focuses on the physical and aesthetic qualities of light, both as a means and as a material.

 The circular form stands out in the group of works, as does the use of charcoal, the application of which in aluminium and glass supports suggests very slow and calculated sedimentation processes in layers.

In the interaction between the charcoal and its supports it is important to highlight the possible effects of opacity, transparency and reflex – in other words, different forms of reaction to light.

With a remarkable economy of resources, these works by Paulo Lisboa give expression to his wish to translate light into drawing, in its purest form.