Antonio Sena was born in Lisbon in 1941. Despite having enrolled at the Instituto Superior Técnico and the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, he abandoned his scientific path to learn engraving at the Cooperative Society of Portuguese Engravers. Encouraged by a successful first solo exhibition in 1964 and a critically acclaimed group exhibition the following year, Sena left Portugal to study at Central St Martins (1965-1966) thanks to a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship, spending the following decade working in the English capital.
Upon his return to Lisbon in the mid-1970s, his Anglo-Saxon sensibilities were undeniably cemented in his practice. A brief exploration of pop art exposed the artist to the inclusion of writing as a viable tool in contemporary practice, which grew into an informal gestural reflection on abstract compositions. Although non-figurative, Sena’s corpus nonetheless relies on visual practices and motifs most beholders would recognise as ‘writing’ or ‘numbers’. Indeed, writing and drawing are impossible to dissociate in Sena’s work. Inscriptions are purposefully legible but can never be interpreted. As such, they focus less on the message captured – which is absent – than on the physical act of calligraphy itself. Through signs, marks, scratches, sprays, drips and other line work, Sena conveys gesture instead of meaning, without falling back on imitation of the gestural painters of the early 20th century.
In the 1970s, this avenue of exploration was supplemented by a renewed use of colour. The following decade cemented Sena’s integration of chromaticism into his informal calligraphic practice. In the 1990s, the colours he used would be reduced to a specific earthy palette of browns, ochres and yellows. Since the 21st century, Sena has worked towards reducing his practice to its essence, decreasing the number of intersecting lines to make room for the small symbols explored in his geometrical research.
Recent group exhibitions include: Ensaio para uma comunidade: retrato de uma coleção em construção (take 1), Fundação EDP, Lisbon (2021); O pequeno mundo, Museu de Arte Contemporânea Nadir Afonso Chaves (2020); ProjectoMap 2010_2020 | Mapa ou Exposição, Berardo Museum, Lisbon (2020); Studiolo XXI | Desenho e Afinidades, Fundação Eugénio de Almeida, Évora (2019); Trabalho Capital, Centro de Art Oliva, São João da Madeira (2019).
Recent solo exhibitions include: António Sena Accrochage, Caroline Pagès Gallery, Lisbon (2018); António Sena. Cahiers. Books., Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva Foundation (FASVS), Lisbon (2009); António Sena – Obras sobre papel, Galeria João Esteves de Oliveira, Lisbon (2006); ANTÓNIO SENA, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto (2003); António Sena – Pintura / Painting, Modern Art Centre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2002).
