Under pressure
João Cardoso
2024
Oil on canvas, measuring 40 x 40 x 4 cm | 15 ³/₄ x 15 ³/₄ x 1 ³⁷/₆₄ in.
Translating to a very present feeling. Most cities are packed and stressful. The mind has to complete many more tasks than ever before. So I feel the smoke translates that fulness and desperation.
João Cardoso
2024
Oil on canvas, measuring 40 x 40 x 4 cm | 15 ³/₄ x 15 ³/₄ x 1 ³⁷/₆₄ in.
Translating to a very present feeling. Most cities are packed and stressful. The mind has to complete many more tasks than ever before. So I feel the smoke translates that fulness and desperation.
João Cardoso
2024
Oil on canvas, measuring 40 x 40 x 4 cm | 15 ³/₄ x 15 ³/₄ x 1 ³⁷/₆₄ in.
Translating to a very present feeling. Most cities are packed and stressful. The mind has to complete many more tasks than ever before. So I feel the smoke translates that fulness and desperation.
CURATORIAL THEME
This series explores the power of the mundane to both settle and unsettle our human state. While an expected scene can suggest normality, there is a sense of flatness, even discomfort, in the ordinary. Across João Cardoso´s latest series of paintings he explores how far he can push the boundaries of the mundane by constructing common scenes in a imagined future.
A sense of surveillance is emphasised through the consistent depiction of CCTV across the series. This intends to position the viewer as the voyeur, who uncomfortably confronts humanity’s seemingly supposed outcome.