JOH

Jorge Humberto, who signs his work JOH, was born in Lisbon in 1960. He completed his bachelor's degree at the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes de Lisboa and attended the Drawing Course of the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes. His practice encompasses painting, sculpture and installation, and also includes performance projects and interventions in public space.

In the exhibition "Tradutor", presented at Appleton Square in Lisbon in 2011, he explored the relationship between gesture, matter and time. Preparing his own paints, he worked with their different densities and fluidity, making the process of execution part of the visual experience of the painting.

He held his first solo exhibition in 1990, at Galeria Arcada in Estoril, with the support of the Secretaria de Estado da Cultura. Later presentations include "Da Parede dos Sonhos", at the Museu Botânico in Lisbon, in 1995, "Faber", at the Galeria Paços do Concelho in Torres Vedras, in 2009, and "Acto Abstracto", at the Museu da Taipa in Macau, in 2010. He has also taken part in the Chaves and Vila Nova de Cerveira biennials and in international fairs such as ARCO Madrid, MiArt in Milan, Arte Lisboa and Arte Santander.

His career includes an artist's residency in Budapest in 1998 and collaborations with Thomas Stadler, notably on the performance "Brownbag Society" in New York. He has also worked with the Ground Floor Theater and taken part in stone sculpture symposia in the Serra de Aire e Candeeiros. In the field of public art, he produced sculptures for Porto de Mós and Rio Maior, the installation "Sobre Natural" in Lisbon, and the sculptures "Rorschach" for the main hall of ISPA.

He received the Prémio da Mais Jovem Pintura Portuguesa in 1989, the Painting Prize of the Banco Comercial de Macau and the Prémio Revelação de Pintura Júlio Resende, both in 1993. He was also distinguished with the Acquisition Prize of the VII Cerveira Biennial in 1995 and with first prize in the II Concurso de Pintura Baviera in 2002.

His work is part of collections such as those of the Museu de Macau, the Fundação Conde de Oeiras, the Banco Comercial de Macau and ISPA, as well as municipal collections in Portugal and Hungary and private collections in Europe, Brazil and Macau.