Pedro Proença was born in Lubango (Angola) in 1962. He started drawing at the early age of 13, dedicating himself to comics. After an unsuccessful application to the Lisbon School of Fine Arts (ESBAL) to study architecture, Proença briefly studied at the National Society of Fine Arts in Lisbon (1980-1982), where he met Professor João Vieira, a painter who would later influence him greatly as an artist. Motivated and inspired, he enrolled at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon University, graduating in 1986. Very active during his student years, he founded the Homeostético group, whose members included Manuel João Vieira, Pedro Portugal, Ivo and Xana.
A painter, illustrator, writer and also composer, Proença’s works are naturally eclectic. His images appear as a repository of cultural sabotage – drawn with equal relish from Western art history and Greek literature, from the East and the primitive. His imaginative settings are populated with allegorical men and animals. Nevertheless, his allegories are not merely comedic. They also exist as a serious attempt to transform a difficult reality through the process of metamorphosis.
After the Homeostético group’s first exhibition in 1984, Proença would enjoy his first solo exhibitions the following year at Casa Bocage, in Setúbal, and at Galeria Cómicos, in Lisbon. Since then, he has held several solo exhibitions at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon; at Galería Fúcares, in Madrid; at the Kunstverein, in Frankfurt; and at Galeria Pedra Oliveira, in Porto.
In 1983, he won the Nadir Afonso Prize and was awarded an Honourable Mention at the Festival Cagnes-sur-Mer. In 1985, he was awarded the 5th Triennial of India Acquisition Prize and, in 1993, he won the União Latina Prize for an installation at the headquarters of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. In 1996, he won the Eixo Atlântico Prize and in 1997, the 1st Salon de Otoño de Plasencia Prize.
Proença works and lives in Lisbon.
