Exhibitions
“Inhospitable. Strange. Everything here seems to move at a cold, aggressive pace. Everything repels me from wanting to enter. How is it possible, (sea), for beings to be inhabited by such distinct moods?”
2023
Essence
“Invited by the Luís da Silva Ribeiro Public Library and Regional Archive of Angra do Heroísmo, Adolfo Mendonça challenged himself to exhibit his most personal artistic side. Reserved and calm, an observer by nature, he reveals his inner self in this exhibition, inviting us to look beyond what is offered at first glance. Through the parallel between creation, the sea, and beings, we are compelled to forget the surface and allow the interior to offer us a complex and beautiful reality.
With a body of work established at the regional, national, and international levels, in which he has accustomed us to creative and exquisite ceramic work inspired by the timelessness of Nature, Adolfo Mendonça explores his creations exhaustively and repeatedly in "ESSENCE". The seven works presented invite the visitor to shed preconceptions about their rough and arid exterior and to observe and absorb the fascinating interior. Adolfo thus affirms his signature as an intimate identity, in which he sheds the superficial layers of his own art and delves into his own essence.”
Inês Melo
“When you sulk like that, you make me believe I’m not part of you. Curiosity, however, is stronger than the force pushing me away from you. With my fingertips, I feel the surface of your being. I dive in, my eyes fixed on the rough abyss you offer me.”
essence 2/7
“As the light bends, I see other layers of this nature. I know your depth. Your life forms forged under pressure. Tortuous beginnings in a hostile environment, arduous cycles that create diamond-like beings. I am astonished to witness them, as if precisely designed by the creative genius of the Universe. Geometric details. Colours vivid only in dreams. Beautiful forms. All moving at a slow pace, choreographed by someone who specialises in floating with grace. I want to stay and absorb more and more and more.”
Discover the available pieces
2021
Excerpts
“For the islander – whether a person or an isolated rock in the ocean – the sea is God. Matter, a liquid mass, still holds all mysteries and inspires wonder and awe. Science says we know only a very tiny part of it. There are those who never cease searching. Adolfo Mendonça is one of those who search – and he does so with eyes and hands of wonder, which only the most fortunate possess.
It is from this search that his work is born. In ceramics, he gives form to what he sees, allowing us, in this way, to see and discover as well. They are always delicate pieces, even though they contain all the maritime force and all its elements: the creatures, the stones, the waves. It is here that the artist moves and will continue to move. It is therefore not surprising that this first exhibition seems familiar to us. Everything is interconnected: the materials, the colours, the object of inspiration, but above all the sensitivity of someone who understands that there is more beyond the surface of things – that to be and to exist, it is necessary to observe the world layer by layer and be surprised by the crossing.
“Excerpts” is, therefore, yet another journey, this time through marine sensations – a four-part stroll through the depths of the waters, through the colours they acquire in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, through the shapes and textures they assume in their fluidity.”
Oriana Barcelos
“Excerpts” are fragments because the sea isn’t swallowed all at once; these are waters to dive into with your eyes wide open.
