Albuquerque Mendes

Albuquerque Mendes was born in Trancoso in 1953. He emerged in the 1980s as one of the major figures of the Portuguese art scene, with a practice spanning painting, performance, happening and installation.

His work explores pop culture, popular traditions and religious forms and rituals, and examines the social and historical conditions that shape how works of art circulate, gain legitimacy and are received. Music plays a central role in his performances, which question myths embedded in Portuguese history and Western culture.

He was a member of the Puzzle Group, active in Porto between 1976 and 1981, alongside artists such as João Dixo, Armando Azevedo, Carlos Carreiro, Graça Morais, Dário Alves, Jaime Silva, Pinto Coelho and Gerardo Burmester. The group took part in exhibitions such as "Jeune Peinture Portugaise" and "Artistes Portugaises" at the Centre Culturel Portugais in Paris in 1976 and 1977, "Arte Portuguesa Contemporânea", which toured Brasília, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in 1976-1977, and "Antevisão do Centro de Arte Moderna" at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1981. Its work was shown again in "50 Anos de Arte Portuguesa" in 2007 and in "Portugal em Flagrante. Operação 2" at the Modern Art Centre in 2016.

In 2022 the Serralves Foundation presented his work "Installation (Tango)", from 2001, at Casa da Música in Porto, activated on the opening day by a performance in which the artist leads two tango dancers onto a small circular stage beneath a red velvet curtain.

His work is held in the collections of the Serralves Foundation - Museum of Contemporary Art, which received "Installation (Tango)" as a gift from the artist in 2006, and of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Modern Art Centre, which holds "Éden".