André Romão

André Romão at Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Installation view. Photography: Rob Battersby

André Romão at Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Installation view. Photography: Rob Battersby

André Romão at Bluecoat, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Installation view. Photography: Ben Nuttall

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André Romão (b. 1984, Lisbon, Portugal) lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal. Romão’s work has developed on a diversity of media to explore a territory where normal interactions between bodies and entities are suspended, and where the borders between human and animal, natural and artificial, cultural and vegetable blur. Strongly anchored in poetry, his work uses or appropriates materials in a speculative manner, deeply rooted in the legacies of both Surrealism and the Baroque. Recent exhibitions include Museu Berardo, Portugal (2019); Galeria Vera Cortês, Portugal (2018); Tenderpixel, UK (2018); Museu de Serralves, Portugal (2016; 2013) and MACRO, Italy (2014).

Project Description

André Romão presented six sculptural pieces at Bluecoat. Romão’s sculptures capture moments of transformation between humans, animals, minerals and plants, as well as organic and abstract entities. Each sculpture raises questions about the overlapping of human life and nature. Armour (2019) shows a form as tall as the human body coated in mussels.Testa (2019) is an Italian antique sculpture encrusted with quartz crystals. Pierna izquierda (2019) is a sculptural fragment taking the form of an animalistic limb crafted from wood. In Generator (2019), the fuel of an electric generator is replaced with bright yellow acacia pollen which are seen emerging from the machine – evoking the queerness and sexuality of nature. Moonrise (2019), a large suspended blue Plexiglass disk, evoking a night where normal interactions between bodies and entities are suspended. Heavy Foot (2020) depicts a plant emerging from a life-sized foot made from a bronze cast. Metamorphic and uncanny, Romão’s collection of works challenge and transcend human-centric ways of thinking by embodying ideas of mutation.

Supported by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Our full exhibition programme is now closed, but visitors can still enjoy art in person at FACT and Bluecoat until August & September. Plan your visit here.