Manuel Amorim

Manuel Amorim (b. 1950, Portugal) creates existential paintings and prints that parallel his dreams. Often including a single figure, the shadowy silhouette is archetypal of every man. "My paintings are like a fragment of the past or present," Amorim notes. "They are a diary of meditations. I try to reveal man as an element of the cosmic totality, as a material constellation, directly participating in the cosmic destiny." Amorim’s compositions mimic the visual language of Outsider Art, including the use of a shallow depth of field, simple shapes and rough textures.

Amorim moved to France in his early adulthood to study in the studios of important Modern artists, including Vieira da Silva, Aki Kuroda and Arpad Szenes. Today, his works are found in the Museum of Contemporary Art (Porto), Gulbenkian Museum (Lisbon) and National Fund for Contemporary Art (France). The artist lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal.