Diogo Pimentão

Żak Branicka is delighted to present the exhibition Extended Meaning with works by Diogo Pimentāo – the artist’s first solo exhibition in the gallery’s Berlin space. Pimentão’s strength lies in his curiosity and deep fascination with materiality, particularly, that of paper. His constructions border the line between drawing and sculpture. At first glance, these minimalistic objects feel as if they are molded out of bent metal instead of folded paper. His graphite surfaces shimmer in the light, radiating sheen like polished lead. Pimentão’s works defy all the properties of what they appear to be, raising far more questions then they answer. By his own accord, he doesn’t prescribe to any conscious connection to Modernism. It’s a language in the same hemisphere of his thinking yet it isn’t his governing discipline. In his most recent pieces, exhibited at Żak Branicka, from the series Untold (synthesis) 2018, large paper constructions have the feel of Alan Charlton’s early minimalistic grey paintings, as both use their forms as building blocks to create the selected space. Starting with a blank sheet of paper, he manually applies the graphite using the whole weight of his body, until we are left with a glossy metallic-like surface, scratched and scuffed from all the physical effort put into it. Each scratch on the paper tells the story of a particular action and is connected with a singular gesture; taken together, the motions that produce these marks are much like a performance that the artist carried out in his studio.