Pedro Cabrita Reis. XIV Steps

Portuguese Artist Pedro Cabrita Reis, on the occasion of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, returns to Venice at Magazzino del Sale 3 - Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia with a radically different gesture: XIV Steps, a cycle of fourteen paintings inspired by the Stations of the Cross.

After two landmark Venetian projects defined by large-scale installations employing steel structures, industrial materials, and neon light, the artist offers an intimate and unexpected turn that redefines the audience's relationship with his work.

Pedro Cabrita Reis, a painter at heart, marks, with XIV Steps, a significant new chapter in his practice and ongoing investigation into culture, memory, and the complexities of the human condition.

Born in 1956 in Lisbon, where he lives and works, Cabrita Reis is widely regarded as one
of the leading figures of contemporary art. Since the mid-1980s, his work has
achieved international recognition and has been pivotal to the redefinition of sculpture in
a post-minimal and post-conceptual context. Cabrita Reis has consistently pursued an independent path, developing a multidisciplinary practice that encompasses painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, and large-scale installations composed of industrial and found materials.

Cabrita Reis has a long-standing and significant relationship with La Biennale di Venezia. In 2003 he represented Portugal with Longer Journeys at the Antichi Granai in Giudecca having also presented Absent Names in the Giardini. In 2013, he presented A Remote Whisper, a major site-specific installation at Palazzo Falier, which marked a decisive moment in the consolidation of his international profile. He returned to Venice in 2022 on the occasion of the 59th International Art Exhibition with Field, a large-scale installation conceived for the Chiesa di San Fantin, a sculptural intervention articulated within the church space through architectural structures and industrial materials, reaffirming the centrality of construction, spatial experience, and physical presence within his practice.

A Remote Whisper in 2013 and Field in 2022 were Venetian projects that exemplified the broader logic of Cabrita Reis' work, in which materials are never neutral but instead act as carriers of memory, gesture, and action. Deeply rooted in the complexity of an historically-layered territory shaped by myths, literature, music, and philosophical thought—his oeuvre nevertheless speaks with remarkable clarity to broader, transhistorical concerns.... read the rest of the article»