1953 - 1975: Portuguese painter born February 24th, Lisbon.

 

Given his academic background, it was not easy to predict a turn towards painting. He was studying engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa, while working as a professional photographer when, in 1972, he decided to attend the initiation courses that the Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes made freely available. This was his training, completed in 1975, followed by attendance at Escola Superior de Belas-Artes de Lisboa.

 

Between 1986 and 1998: He was a teacher at Ar. Co, Lisbon, where he was responsible for the drawing and painting departments.
At the base of this work are reproductions of images, made up in dossiers that the artist keeps and reuses indefinitely. The references may be erudite or not, connected to the popular culture of comics or to the imaginary and ruined architectures that Piranesi imagined and drew in the 17th century. All his work, painting and drawing, starts from the appropriation of these images, from their decontextualization and later re-contextualization, in a post-modern attitude that Calapez shares with other artists of his generation.

Thematically, his painting is concerned with the construction of a space, or a multiplicity of spaces and, more recently, with the ability to reproduce a space through painting and drawing.

In addition to his individual and collective exhibitions, his participation in the 1986 Venice Biennale, and the awards he has received (such as the Latin Union Prize in 1990), Calapez has also designed scenographies for shows, as well as several public works, having designed a square for the Lisbon World Exposition in 1998 and a ceramic panel for the Lisbon subway.