Spring Affair: Group Show - London

André Saraiva draws on the improvisational potential and free play of possibilities as his style evolves into a more conceptual practice. His artistic language is revolving around bold colours. The artist's signature use of candy pink and azure blue, ranging from its faint hues to neon, expresses positive emotions; happiness, playfulness and even poetics.

Saraiva’s Mr. A, character with signature ‘X’ and ‘O’ eyes, represents artist’s alter ego. He began painting this iconic grinding face throughout the cities searching for a joyful interaction with the public space and passers-by. Mr. A is a visual shortcut, an emoticon used by the artist to project playfulness. The artist is curious to find out what happens when our behaviour is influenced by the idea of play. Looking at the phenomenology of movement, game brings about a form of kinesthetic freedom; games begin, are played out, even end, only to be repeated by players who want to continue playing, over and over again as the pleasure of the experience drives the desire. 

Montgomery speaks to passers-by by placing his lyric messages at the most unexpected places, luring us to tap into our inner poet. Under his touch the city becomes a place of participation. He writes large-scale texts on billboards or light works; “whereas graffiti sprayers usually covertly place their tags in the grey zones of awareness—on underpasses, overpasses, or the walls of buildings; Montgomery operates openly, using, among others, bus stops, parks, and billboards as projection screens.” (Ingo Arend)

More recently, Robert Montgomery started producing poetic paintings depicting elements of human and natural form, often derived from his immediate surroundings. Using subtle color palette, his styles range from the naturalistic, to the abbreviated and abstract, indicating a way of differentiating among modes of representation, that is akin to postmodern practices.