Pedro Vaz: Lived Landscape

Lived Landscape is a solo exhibition by Portuguese artist Pedro Vaz consisting of ten acrylic paintings on watercolor paper.

On August 4, 1881, the first scientific expedition to the Serra da Estrela (The Mountain of the Star) began. The voyage, organized by the Geographic Society of Lisbon, included more than 100 specialists in fields such as archaeology, anthropology, botany, geology, medicine, meteorology, and photography. A topographic auxiliary commission also joined the project to create the first cartographic survey of the area. Descending on one of the highest mountain ranges in continental Portugal, these explorers trekked through uncharted high pastures and river valleys.

140 years later in 2022, Pedro Vaz set out to retrace the steps taken on the first expedition of Portugal’s famous mountain range. During his journey he produced photographs, sketches, and writings. Vaz shares, “Although we ourselves are an integral part of the natural environment, contemporary man has lost the link of the ancestral union with nature.” He continues, “this is because from the moment we became self-conscious, we ceased to see the natural environment around us as a continuation of ourselves, to think of it as separate and above all to act in accordance with that separation.” The aim of his journey and subsequently his practice has been to reconcile the terms of this duality.

After returning from his own expedition he revisited his own documentation of the trip and produced this series of paintings recalling his memories hiking through the mountain range.

View a list of available works here. 

Pedro Vaz was born in 1977 in Maputo, Mozambique and now lives and works in Lisbon. He graduated from the Universidade de Belas Artes, Lisboa, Portugal in 2006. His work is based on the subjects of nature and landscape, and he works mostly in painting and video-installation. Personal contact with real environments is fundamental to his practice and these projects often include a tour. His process alternates between immersing himself in nature through expeditions and experiencing the abstracting qualities memory has when working in the studio.

In 2021 he presented the solo exhibition, Num único acorde, at CAB - Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, Burgos, Spain. He has participated in the following group exhibitions: Loops.Expanded, 2021, at MNAC - National Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal; LA TORMENTA, 2020, Cultural Center Teopanzolco, Cuernavaca, Mexico; O Olhar Divergente, 2019, Arquipélago - Contemporary Arts Center, Azores, Portugal; After the shock, the tropics, 2018, Galeria Luísa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil; Second Nature, 2018, The Kreeger Museum, Washington D.C., USA; Second Nature, 2016, MAAT - Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal; Link, Ano Zero - Biennal de Coimbra, 2015, Coimbra, Portugal. His work is in museum collections, at CAM - Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal; Fundação de Serralves, in Oporto, Portugal; MAAT - Fundação EDP, Lisbon, Portugal; Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos - CAB, Burgos, Spain, amongst others.