José
Lourenço

“…José Lourenço opts to portray buildings of which the exterior is covered in a sort of reflective surface (possibly mirrors), which completely separates the observer from the inside of the building. The spectator is thus caught within a game of tensions between seeing and being seen, metamorphosed by the tension between the rigid limits of architecture and their transformation into fluid and organic reflections. The new building takes on unusual characteristics: it resembles cloth wrapping up a body.”

“José Lourenço seems to be possessed by this joy that has been lost: to enjoy doing, to enjoy creating...”

“…In fact we might even say that a cinematic vision may be perceived in Lourenço’s images, as if we were looking at a photogram that condenses a block of movement into stillness, the somewhat sleepy movements of a camera that has been reduced to a unique point, to a purely optical notation of an image frozen in a perennial moment of supreme and fragile insignificance.”

“The effect of rigor is reinforced by a flat painting and by a sober and sure execution, served by strict rules of composition and by the use of areas of uniform color subjected to clearly-defined outlines. José Lourenço does without expressive raptures, material delights or colorful convulsions. We are speaking of a graphical rigor that the author himself admits when he talks of ‘flat, geometrical, rigorous surfaces’”