João Penalva

Galeria Francisco Fino presents the first solo exhibition by João Penalva at the gallery. Conceived by the artist as a retrospective, the exhibition gathers works that span several decades, combining recent and earlier pieces that reflect his ongoing interest in narrative, memory, and translation between image, sound, and text. Some of the works are shown in Portugal for the first time, while others are revisited after many years, creating a dialogue between past and present within the artist’s practice.

Recent works such as “Nu Reclinado (Abstracto)” and “Philharmonie” coexist with earlier pieces including “Sete vistas de espaços entre cinco cadeiras” and “W”, outlining a heterogeneous landscape where visual, literary, and performative languages intersect. Through this constellation of works, Penalva reveals the multiplicity of his approach — attentive to the overlooked, the fragmentary, and the poetic potential of everyday detail.

The exhibition reflects Penalva’s distinctive way of constructing narratives that resist linear interpretation, offering instead a space of layered associations and shifting perspectives. In doing so, it highlights his long-standing engagement with memory and time, where images and stories unfold slowly, asking to be read as much as seen.