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Pedro Henrique Cunha Kastelijns, 1997.
born in Ponta Grossa, raised in Goiânia, Brazil.
bachelor Fine Arts, Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam), 2022.
lives and works between Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Goiânia (Brazil).
contact
email: pedrokastelijns@gmail.com
socials: Instagram, Youtube, Spotify, Bandcamp.
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about
Pedro’s work encompasses drawing, painting, sculpture, music, performance, and installation. His defining characteristic is the ability to combine different mark-making styles and techniques on the same surface to create contrasting compositions in which camouflaged cartoonish characters share space with awkwardly juxtaposed brushstrokes and geometries. Combining visual -two and three-dimensional- work with sound -music, and performance-, he carries a similar sensibility and vibrancy, furthermore characterized by his playful and improvisational approach to both art and music. In the past year, Pedro has started an exploration of the polyhedric meanings of brick walls that encompasses their conceptual relevance as well as their omnipresence in his personal life from both his homeland Brazil and the Netherlands. This long-standing artistic research has ultimately inspired his bachelor’s thesis and his graduation project 'Construção', a result of his Fine Arts studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, the project was nominated for the Ron Mandos Young Blood Award 2022 and the Lakeside Collection Award 2022.
text written by Annie Goodner
When Pedro first moved to the Netherlands from Brazil, he described his new surroundings as architecturally oppressive. In comparison to the improvisational and colorful building styles back home, the walls, sidewalks and facades of Amsterdam were constant and impenetrable. But brick unexpectedly created a way in and a way out. Pedro began to explore the pattern, texture and omnipresence of brick across the city, taking pictures and ultimately incorporating the sensibilities of brick walls into his paintings. In these often small, lively, and energetic works, brick appears as both a mood and an architecture. While the bricks, or bricking, invariably represent solidity, they sometimes float, turning from the corporeal into the ethereal. Throughout his painting work, Pedro recreates the character of Manivela, a personified hand, playful and improvised, who balances a candle on a kitchen spoon. Manivela is in-between and often layered with a brick-pattern and other heavy gouache, making it indistinguishable from other architectural forms within the paintings. The character is heavy, and yet, like paintings themselves, seems to levitate like a puff of smoke.
photo & video credit
Gert Jan Van Rooij
Giovanni Salice
Joe Eshuis
Nell Schwan
Mayis Rukel
Kleoniki Stanich
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