Exhibition "What Sustains Us?"

Francisco Trêpa (1995) is a Portuguese artist living in Lisbon. He studied ceramics at António Arroio
Artistic School (2013), holds a degree in Sculpture (2017) and a Master’s in Multimedia Art (2022) from the
Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon. Since 2015, he has exhibited nationally and internationally
in various galleries and institutions. His work is included in the Antonio Cachola Collection (MACE), the
PLMJ Foundation Collection, and several private collections. In 2024, he was named a finalist for the EDP
Foundation’s New Artists Award. That same year, he won the Grand Prize of the Sovereign Portuguese
Art Prize. He is currently preparing his solo exhibition, O Baile dos Bugalhos, for the Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation’s Modern Art Center, scheduled to open in September 2025.
Francisco Trêpa’s practice investigates symbiotic relationships that sustain ecological, existential, and
affective systems, using a variety of materials to create sculptures that explore, and ultimately embody,
concepts such as transmutability and hybridism. His most recent body of work creates a meta-universe
inspired by the plant world, the ties and crosses between plants and animals, such as pollination, conjuring
the complex relationships between non-human animals and the impression of humanity in the Anthropocene.
His sculptures evoke natural phenomena which are provided by the senses, drawing on both aesthetic and
poetic dimensions in order to foster involvement, and ultimately, reflection. In this way, his works weave visual
narratives that invite both contemplation and questioning, combining symbolism, emotion, form, and critical
thought. His work is prolific, using the generative capacity of imagination to create a sense of reproductive
abundance, as he unfolds and expands the forms that matter (ceramic, wax, wood) assumes in his practice.
Over the past two years, the “main actors” of this meta-universe have been fictional, genderless characters
who tell us their stories and attempt to escape the categories of our world.