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René Tavares
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Born 1983 in São Tomé and Príncipe
Lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal
The work of René Tavares makes recurrent use of a rich archival material to present viewers with countless intellectual challenges. His practice proposes the redefinition of the fields of artistic expression: bringing to painting techniques, gestures, and materials that refer back to drawing, and transferring to drawing the gestural and theatricality that is the appanage of painting. This hybridisation of the plastic languages is also transferred to photography, claiming for art a trace of the absolute. Tavares is a key figure in the Santomense art scene and in the context of his generation, he has occupied the position of figurehead in the contemporary art system of the Lusophone geographic space. His visibility has become increasingly preeminent in Africa and internationally over the last few years.
René Tavares, Promise day, 2022, Mixed media on canvas, 170x165cm. Courtesy of THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE.

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