Carnival of the animals II Print

Aristides Meneses was born in Maputo, Mozambique, from Goa India ascendancy. He lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal.Painting studies at Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes in Lisbon. Art works, solo and group exhibitions in a few countries. An extensive body of works comprised of oil on canvas and oil and Indian ink on canvas. In his own words: "I am a painter, and all my practice is deeply rooted on who I am, on my origins. I am both from Goa, a state in India, and from Inhambane, a region on the south of Mozambique, Africa. Since, for historical reasons, those parts of the world where Portuguese, I am a Portuguese living and working in Lisbon, Portugal. This made me a multicultural person since inception, both biologically and culturally". "As for the subjects of my paintings, from the beginning I am exploring the notion of belonging to many places at the same time, of simultaneous and contradictory emotions and feelings, and of how can we get a glimpse of what exists in the space between some familiar contexts and other equally familiar contexts". “So I expect the viewer of my work to empty her mind in order to let the painting induce a new state of mind and understanding. It is mostly about feeling each work instead of trying to analyze it”.