Pablo Barreiro: Qué Fica? | NO.NO
I saw a lot of really good art in Lisbon, including this exhibition, from the Spanish sculptor Pablo Barreiro. The scene seemed defiantly, even self-defeatingly local: Barreiro is from unusually far afield, next door in Spain. Most of the artists on show were Portuguese, and unfamiliar to me.
I mentioned this to the (Italian) gallerist at the Barreiro show. She said, with what seemed to be both affection and frustration, that insularity and aloofness is a national characteristic. She said that Carlos Bunga - who has an upcoming show at a city museum and whose recent London exhibition I featured on here - was really a rare example of a contemporary artist from Portugal who’s well-known abroad.
She also said that a huge proportion of privately-owned Ming dynasty porcelain, which Barreiro’s art riffs off, is in private hands in Portugal. Quite suitable, really, considering this mass European taste was imported by Portuguese navigators and explorers. At one point, this small nation was rapaciously (and cruelly) outward-facing, and it’s still keeping some colonial booty to itself.
Barreiro uses cobalt oxide to stain his porcelain squares with designs based on street signs. The resulting works are reminiscent of the classic blue and white tiles that adorn many of this city’s older houses and churches. And they’re the exact colours of the pricey local Vista Alegre tableware.
While street signs and china cups are mass produced, Barreiro’s artworks are sumptuous one-offs, and all the more covetable for it. They convey seriality, but remain unique.
Que fica? means what remains? One of the things that remains from Portugal’s colonial conquests is the mass taste for blue-and-white porcelain, still going strong. I suppose Barreiro’s covetable tiles are part of that.
I couldn’t tell you much else that remains; I’m not privy to the information, and it won’t be shared with me, as a mere visitor.
Pablo Barreiro: Qué Fica? is at NO.NO (Lisbon). 13 September - 08 November 2025