In what is his first solo exhibition at Galeria das Salgadeiras, Martinho Costa presents a group of paintings that evoke moments of leisure, in the height of summer and surrounded by an immense use of colour. Here, light and shadow—rather than simply being drawn from a (supposedly) represented reality—serve as mechanisms that intensify a sense of mystery within the narrative.

Starting from his own images, it is in the studio that Martinho Costa reverses, subverts, and inverts that very “real,” focusing on certain details of a scene, a landscape, or a particular movement from which a new story may emerge, deconstructing what the original image might have told us. There is a wandering through territory, scrutinising what surrounds him—an action that is reflected on the canvas.

What sparks Martinho Costa’s interest? Let us search for it, knowing that, like a “search engine,” what is hinted at always reveals a certain subjectivity.

— Ana Matos, in Room Sheet.