Backpack Almanac: A solo exhibition by Francisco Mendes Moreira

 The title of Francisco Mendes Moreira’s exhibition for Everyday Gallery, Backpack Almanac, is intriguing. The juxtaposition of these two words orchestrates a clash between different ways of seeing and engaging with the world around us. Both the almanac and the backpack express a desire to know the world around us, but the way they do so differs significantly. Whereas an almanac is a booklet full of useful data organized in convenient categories and tables that are ready for practical use, backpacking implies a much more intuitive encounter with the world, spontaneously traveling from one place to the next with nothing but more than what we can fit in a backpack. 

Mendes Moreira’s aesthetics is also characterized by this combination of a carefully organized representation of the world and a more spontaneous, deliberately naive approach. His paintings often feature a subtle neocubist treatment of perspective, exploring ever new vantage points for organizing reality. At the same time, Mendes Moreira takes an intuitive approach to his art. He paints or sculpts whatever crosses his path or what happens to be on his mind. But by digging deep inside his inner world, Mendes Moreira creates a universe full of unexpected encounters. 

Many of the works on display in Backpack Almanac depict people gathered around a table or another type of square-like shape. The activities they undertake vary both in type and tone. Some works, like The New Hollywood, captures the scene of a cocktail party. You would expect such a scene to be pleasant and light-hearted. People are gathered around a table drinking wine and eating cake. But Mendes Moreira blends these happy scenes with darker, more ominous overtones. In The Sybil, one person has passed out on the table. His body is only partially inside of the circle of glaring light that shines harshly on the table. In Closing Time, a distressed figure lying flat on the table is calmly observed by a person whose head is an enormous skull. In Seance, the figures are engaged in a seance that is both hilariously funny and deeply disconcerting. 

The creatures that populate Mendes Moreiras’s work are perhaps only partly human. The scenes in which they appear and the landscapes and objects that Mendes Moreira develops, are elements in a world that is beginning to morph into a dream. Neither almanac nor backpack, these figures and objects are stuck somewhere in between reality and illusion. Embracing that dreamlike 

state, Mendes Moreira’s work encourages us to use our illusion, as the title of one of his paintings in this show suggests. 

And yet, Mendes Moreira’s work is also firmly embedded within everyday life, dictated by practical considerations that were turned into creative assets. Many of the paintings in Backpack Almanac are painted on unusual surfaces: old blankets, an old quilt, tablecloth… Refurbishing fabrics that were once part of everyday life is a key feature of Mendes Moreira’s aesthetics. The choice for paper-maché for many of the sculptures, adds to this aesthetics. And finally, the painterly technique that the artist employs in his colorful oil paintings are reminiscent of the technique often obtained when using oil pastels. When Mendes Moreiras started out as a young artist, these choices for recycled materials where made out of necessity. It greatly reduced the cost of his work, just as using oil pastels instead of oil paint did. But they shaped his view on art in a unique way. Nowadays, Mendes Moreira is a well-reputed artist making an international name for himself. But the tricks he learned as a young artist have become one of his greatest assets, giving his paintings their unique outlook. 

Text by Bram Ieven