Pedro A.H. Paixão (b. 1971, Lobita, Angola; lives and works in Castellina Marittima, Italy)

In medio vero omnium residet Sol (July 29, 2016) (2016)
20 slide projection on pedestal on a loop, variable dimensions
The Handshake ; Prayer ; The Pure ; Joseph ; La Madre (2026)
Vermillion colored pencil on paper, 77 x 57 cm each

Since 2019, Pedro A.H. Paixão has been developing a series of works dedicated to his family history and the (neo)colonial period in Central Africa. Exploring complex narratives of struggle and emancipation, the works are situated within a suspended atmosphere evoking dreams, animist magic, and initiatory journeys. Presented here is a blend of personal photographs, family archives, and historical documents, in dialogue with a set of vermilion-colored drawings, all of which explore the artist’s fascination with the universal and spiritual symbolism of solar energy.

The development of the series took shape while contemplating the precise moment of sunrise and sunset, when the sun glows red and reveals itself to the eye, just before becoming too bright to be perceived. The question of visibility and intangibility is manifested in the contemplative installation In medio vero omnium residet Sol, which translates to “In the very center of all things sits the Sun.” It is a photographic slideshow conceived as a transformative rite of passage that traces a sunset until the image dissolves into blinding nothingness and the sun is replaced by the image of the interior of a slide projector. By creating a spellbinding space, Pedro A.H. Paixão offers an experience that is as emotional as it is visual.

Pedro A.H. Paixão was born in Angola, where he lived until the outbreak of the civil war in 1975. He studied fine arts at Ar.Co in Lisbon and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Porto. He has received fellowships from the Luso-American Foundation, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Lisbon Foundation for Science and Technology, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in Venice. Paixão won the international Navigator Art on Paper Prize in 2018, and the first major retrospective of his work took place that same year at the CIAJG in Guimarães. Major solo exhibitions include the Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães, Guimarães (2018); Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon (2003); and the José de Azeredo Perdigão Modern Art Centre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2000). His work has also been featured in major group exhibitions at MUCEM, Marseille (2021); the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2007); and Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon (2003).

Since 2017, Irène Laub gallery has featured several generations of Belgian and international artists who are either presented solo to offer an immersion into the heart of their practice, or presented in group exhibitions around themes linked to landscape, architecture and intimate or political identities. The represented artists showcase a wide range of mediums. The gallery is conceived as a space for experimentation, enabling them to test the boundaries of their chosen discipline, by testing the physical nature of the work and its relationship to space, or by exploring the relevance of their creations in the social sphere. The gallery’s program aims to promote a fruitful dialogue between artists, curators and institutions.