‘The Skin’ is a series of oil paintings on canvas made in 2019, which continues the Pele series made in 2016.
The series ‘The Skin’ is based on the observation and collection of images of the wounded of the First World War, in particular those documenting the destruction and facial injuries to soldiers during the trench warfare.
But it is not about representing a particular identity, but about addressing a tense and dramatic moment in a general way. It is also an allusion to a historical time that represents the initial period of easy reconstruction, proven techniques and learning.
At the same time, it is political images, alluding to the violence of everyday life, which leads to the need for selfies, images polished in the search for integration into a social context.
The paintings of the series ‘The Skin’ are sinister, turning ugliness and violence into an aesthetic factor, the result of the collage of several documentary portrait images. In the series ‘The Skin’ the ideal representation is overcome, giving way to a carnival regime of representation of form, of fusion of parts and territories, where exaggeration, satire and the strange are present.
Leonel Cunha has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Porto, a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and a post-graduate degree in Multimedia Technology from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. He also has a Master’s degree in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. D. in Contemporary Art from the University of Coimbra, Cunha has received numerous awards and distinctions such as ANJE, Pintura Fernando de Castro, Nacional de Pintura Portugal or Nacional de Pintura Julio Resende.
Work in Collections: Benetton Foundation. Center of Contemporary Art of Malaga. Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. National Association of Young Entrepreneurs. Commercial Bank of Macao. Póvoa de Varzim Town Hall. Maia Town Hall.
“… AND LET ME ADVISE YOU: DO NOT LOVE THE SOUND OR THE STARS, COME, COME WITH ME TO THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS.”
Goethe
EXHIBITION PHOTOS
EXHIBITION VIDEOS
“INTERVIEW TO RAFAEL PÉREZ, THE CONSUL OF PORTUGAL IN MÁLAGA”
“THE CAMERA GETS EXCITED AND LAUNCHES TO DESCRIBE THE EXPOSURE”