PEDRO DE KASTRO

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Pedro De Kastro is born in Lisbon in 1971. At 19, he enlists himself as volunteer into the Portuguese Paratroopers. After several driftings, he reinitiates his autodidact studies. In 2001, PDK goes to Sarajevo representing Portugal in Drawing at the 10th Biennial of Young Creators of Europe and the Mediterranean. A few months later, he leaves the Old World towards South America, more precisely Brazil, where he lives until now.

Artist's Statement

Since I was a child that I am tormented by hellish nightmares where Lisbon is a world of shadows shipwrecked at the End of Time. These dark dreams persist until today, now with sublime visions regarding the Capitals of the World but they are so vivid that I feel like I have already been in that forgotten future

 I create monumental imaginary landscapes where well known cities become surreal sceneries fulfilled with a powerful and actual message. Symbolic elements entwine around the aged World icons, insanely detailed and produced through European engraving and rendering techniques from the 18th century, although my visions are impregnated by the psycho-sociological, industrial and nuclear nightmares of our Third Millenium

You will collide into the Golden Gate Bridge, the Chrysler Building or the Arc of Triumph, among so many others, merged in a far future where you don’t only find yourself in a surrounding scenery so familiar in your present, but you can also see how the mighty hammer of Time will work on its towers, avenues and bridges in many ages to come as no one has never seen before

When we see a World’s hallmark made by man, deeply embedded in our collective memory and devoured by Time, Global Warming and War, our Imagination is strongly impacted, traveling without limits, transforming our own reality into another one much worse and possible. Nevertheless, still avoidable and strangely nostalgic

 My art reflects on the contemporary situation of the planet, revealing in what our Earth can become. Through it, I show, or at least I try to show, in the middle of this nightmare, that the world where we live is, even with all the misfortunes that haunt it, a planet with beautiful things where one can live. Where one can see the sky. Where the sea is blue. Where the plants are green. Where the Sun shines. Where one can breathe. For the time being.

Among others, some exhibitions worth of note

Alpha and Omega

The Cathedral

The Moon (detail 2 The Cathedral)

The Avenue

The Lone Car (detail 2 The Avenue)

The Wall (detail 1 The Avenue)

The Cursed (detail 2 The Bishop III)