The Temptations of St. Anthony, 2024

Miguel Branco   Master Artists

Miguel Branco studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon and since 1994 has directed the Painting Department of the Center for Art and Visual Communication in Lisbon, Ar.Co. Whether through his paintings or his sculptures, Miguel Branco has always worked from images drawn from the history of art. The artist strives to bring together varied geographical and temporal spaces in each of his works. With infinite knowledge and distance, he hypertrophies his painting in order to make us see again the greatness of his masters (Watteau, Chardin, Fragonard, Goya, Velázquez, Bellini, Stubbs, Hogarth, Teniers...) just as he takes us on a journey , in his sculptures, at the heart of civilizations or countries such as Egypt or India, thus creating a dramaturgy where the sensation of the work is to reincarnate an essence that is both present and absent, an invisible that goes beyond us , and yet, a process intrinsic to the work itself. Whether animal, humanoid, object, place, skull, scribe or even butterfly, his work is characterized by the constant presence of a scenic device. His work is focused on metamorphosis and strangeness as much as on the image and the mechanisms it provokes. In 2016, the gallery presents its second solo exhibition entitled "SPECTRES -- On Birds, Skulls and Drones", conceived in dialogue with the exhibition "Black Deer -- Resonances, Abductions, Interferences" at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris. In 2022, the artist was honored by the Festival of Art History at the Château de Fontainebleau as part of the 2022 France-Portugal Season. Also in 2022, the artist is presented at Mudam Luxembourg -- Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, within the exhibition Face-à-Face. In 2023, it is shown in 2023 at the SNBA Lisbon in the exhibition Uma Terna (e Política) Contemplação do que long live (Coleção Norlinda e José Lima); the exhibition entitled Terra -- ou os quarenta nove degraus is dedicated to him at the Carmona e Costa Foundation and he is presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lisbon, within the exhibition I II III IV V -- five decades of ar.co.