João Marques

Nationality and Birth Year: Portuguese | 2001
Occupation: Visual Artist
Styles: Abstract, Mixed Media
Location: Based in Leira & Lisbon, Portugal

"My work seeks, by its own means, to “penetrate to the core of the atoms” (Alberto Carneiro), to re-inhabit the Soil and Nature through its enjoyment with all the senses."

Artist Statement

João Marques is a Portuguese visual artist (Coimbra, 2001) who explores "Terra" (earth/soil) through painting, drawing, and installation. His work inspired by arte povera, examines the earth as both a material and a symbol of creation, transformation, and renewal.

Using recurring materials like scorched earth from forest fires, charcoal, and other natural elements, Marques embodies the resilience and transformation of matter, illustrating how destruction and regeneration coexist in an ongoing cycle of life and death. The physicality of these materials, combined with their symbolic weight, prompts reflection on our place within the natural world and our intertwined fate with the land we inhabit.

In contrast to traditions that seek divine meaning upwards, Marques urges the viewer to look downward—to the earth beneath our feet, which grounds and sustains us. The idea of Paradise, for him, is not above, but below, in the very soil beneath our feet.

Marques won the National Young Creators Competition Prize in Painting in 2021 and has held various solo exhibitions, each showcasing his ever growing talent. His selection for the 2024 edition of PEA - Portuguese Emerging Artists further solidifies his place in the contemporary art scene, recognizing his unique contribution to the ongoing dialogue between humanity and the natural world.