Queridas Bestas,

“Since the first time I visited Abel in his studio, I noticed a numerous set of actions that took place within the margins of a banal sketchbook. After discovering this sketchbook, I found many similar ones. And they all hid the most diverse images and notes, almost like instructions begging for an interpretation outside the limits of those pages.

These sketchbooks mirror Abel’s way of thinking, characterized by anthropological research and a constant desire to learn everything surrounding him. Abel Mota (b. 1999) uses painting to activate his inexhaustible curiosity. He assimilates references from the most diverse sources with the same intensity and articulates them together spontaneously. He combines different elements from Portuguese, Brazilian, or Nordic folklore, Eastern European cinema, or his private collection of masks and objects, creating a vocabulary that gradually becomes more complex.

‘Dear Beasts,’ is the appropriation of Plato’s physical space to stage his imagination, in a provocative game of metaphors and prosopopoeia. It starts with the idea of a bestiary, which becomes a script for various actions that take place in the gallery. The narrative focuses on the metamorphosis between men and animals, which we can tenderly call ‘beasts’. Each painting presents a multi- layered theatrical staging that revolves around pretense, a mise-en-abyme within the painting itself. The skin that forms an identity is simultaneously a mask and a suit. It is both a central element anda prop throughout the various mise-en-scènes. For his works, an action or narrative always matters, generally of an open and manageable nature. He assumes in them a void intended to accommodate other possible meanings.

The ‘beasts’ are observant characters, who seduce us and make us their voyeurs. These fantastic creatures are presented ambiguously, much like the creatures in bestiaries. Abel Mota plays with them and encapsulates in them various stories of an individual or collective daily life. In this way, a proximity is formed between the creator, creation, and spectator, in an innocent game, ready to be corrupted at any moment.”

        ^{Text by Diogo Ramalho for the exhibition}

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