Untitled (Bataille)

A voracious reader who trained as an architect, Julião Sarmento produces paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, and mixed-media works infused with literature and architectural imagery. He is heavily influenced by the Postmodern aesthetic, in which existing texts and images are appropriated and re-combined to create new meaning and to challenge ingrained patterns of thinking. In Lick My Eyes (2005), for example, he combines two snippets of text—one concerning contestation, the second about redefining the notion of God—with a doubled image of a headless woman bent over a chair. Through this combination, Sarmento seems to present a sardonic view of the possibility of challenging established ideas by “illustrating” the texts with figures that look weak and vulnerable. Sarmento’s work reflects his effort to find his place, and to define himself, in a dramatically changed and unstable world.

Lisbon, Portugal