Hugo Castilho

Hugo Castilho was born in 1995, in Setúbal. He graduated in Visual Arts & Multimedia in 2016, at the University of Évora. And in 2021 he completed his Masters in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon. He exhibited individually his artistic work in 2017 and 2019 at the Espaço das Artes of the Casa da Cultura de Setúbal, and in 2022 at the Arte Periférica Gallery at the Centro Cultural de Belém, and at Casa Bocage, in Setúbal. Collectively, he exhibited at Zetgallery in Braga in 2019, and at Drawing Room Lisboa at Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes in 2021, represented by Galeria Arte Periférica.

The best term to describe Castilho's work is painting on high relief, since he approaches the pictorial canvas as a field of sculptural work. However, the creative process starts with drawings on paper, and later these ideas take shape when they are transformed into colorful three-dimensional objects, by modeling and painting. So, let's consider that these creations cross-cut, with pure joy, the universe of drawing, painting and sculpture. Assuming an illustrative narrative accentuated by the figurative composition performed by people, animals and nature as characters, the thematic dialogue in these pieces addresses in a poetic, humorous and tender way, to his life experiences. At the same time, they revolve around raising awareness of social and environmental issues: such as social inclusion, national biodiversity and the concept of animal sentience.