Rui Oliveira

Poetry, as a language of its own, could, one might say, either annul or supersede pictorial language. But, above all, poetry is a vital act, both in Leonardo da Vinci's Renaissance and today in Contemporary Art.

Poetic expression exists in the interiority of painted or drawn things, in the emotive transparency of plastic representation.

Fernando Pessoa said that "the poet is a pretender." Not only the poet, but the painter also "pretends," because plastic representation does not aim at imitation, but rather consists of a creation that translates an inner, personal, and subjective reality, even if it represents reality by suggesting it as a permanently diversified spectacle. The supposed ambiguity of pretense is the authenticity of painting, its visual and aesthetic message.

It is not for me to interpret my own works, but I can propose their reading starting from poetry. I frequently relate, in the same space, the observation of real objects, gestures, and some geometric rigor.