ALLEN PIRES

Unique Works & Limited Editions

DIGITAL PAINTING

“ “ In an area of art such as Painting, where everything seems to have already been done, with little left to invent, I search an alternative way: to synthesize the values of traditional physical painting with a specificity of the digital medium, using it, not as a tool that imitates, but as an instrument of pictorial production with its own characteristics, potentials and specificities.” ”

— Allen Pires

DE PROFUNDIS (38x55 cm) EDITION 1+2AP

COMPOSITION IN RED (48X36 cm) EDITION 1 + 2AP

INCIPIT (71x71 cm) EDITION 1+2AP

Working on the idea of 'beginning' was the leitmotiv of this creation. Search for the representation of the initial impulse of the creative act: the soul energy of the moment of the birth of life, the initial explosion of the cosmos, the first chord of a musical composition... For the author, the immediate instinct was to flood the painting with the vibrant energy of the yellow color (the color of Van Gogh?), and to represent the organic but random character of the multiple division of the “one”. No geometric rigors! Just pure, chaotic energy! In formal terms, this work also expresses the permanent effort to find his own language in terms of digital technique and pictorial representation.

“My digital painting technique does not try to imitate the artist’s hand gesture, but has the explicit intention of preserving the “insurmountable” materiality of the Painting, for which I use - as an “ally”, not as a competitor - the final physical support , who participates in it, by anticipation, in the act and creative intention.”

— Allen Pires

"SACRED MOUNTAIN" (45X65 cm); EDITION 1+2AP

This work is an abstract evocation of the spiritual concept of the “sacred mountain”, a place of refuge and meeting with oneself and with the "divine", present in Western culture since forever. The work, which presents an apparent but false symmetry, seeks to suggest the sinuous and subtle path of "ascent" necessary to reach the highest point of spirituality. The sensation is reinforced by its almost monochromatic palette, with subtle nuances of color, from which fine curved and semi-curved lines stand out.

OSTINATO (103x68 cm) LIMITED EDITION OF 10

“Ostinato” was created in honor of the Portuguese jazz musician, Bernardo Sassetti, who died early in an accident. The work explores one of the development axes of my digital painting work, based on the use of line as a structural element of the composition, creating an effect of rhythmic and musical movement. The search for musical "harmony" is a constant in my work, reflected here also in the title itself: "Ostinato" ... a fragment of musical time... an approach to the music vibration. "Ostinato" is also inspired, at a chromatic and rhythmic level, in some works by Gustav Klimt.

“PASSIONATO” (50x38 cm) EDITION 1+2AP

"Passionato" is a minimalist abstract composition, which makes use of shape, line, texture and color as structuring elements of the composition. Here the texture, very evident when we see the work printed on fine art paper, also plays an important role in the pictorial plane. The subtle superposition of lines, as well as their orientation, and the effect of depth, in association with the strength of the red color, underline the dialectical and dramatic character of passion, as a kind of contained explosion, on the border of the “eminent”.

ECHOES II (75x55 cm) EDITION 1+2AP

In 1970, Pink Floyd composed "Echoes", a long track, released on their 1971 album "Meddle". "Echoing" in his childhood memory of the author, this song was the starting point for the creation of these 2 pieces: a kind of algorithmic musical code, geometrically progressing from the center, on a pink background. The search for a new and original technique and language for digital pictorial representation takes on a minimalist modality here. The division of the composition and the subtle balance of "masses" corresponds, once again, to the attempt to represent musical "harmony".

“My digital painting is conceived and executed taking into account two fundamental points:
a) the essence of the digital - the pixel -is always present as a structuring element of the work, and
b) the work is executed, always having in mind that the final result is, indispensably, a physical support (especially Paper) with all its “corporeal” richness and diversity of tactile characteristics.
In short, using the pixel, Allen Pires “kills” the pixel!
My art is designed to be seen, not on a digital screen, but on a physical support, thus preserving his “tactile soul”

— Allen Pires

“RED” / “BLUE” (30x20 cm) EDITION 1+2AP

Inspired by the work of the modern Portuguese painter, Ângelo de Sousa, these compositions are part of a series of small dimensions, which seeks to work the color, in an almost flat sense, exploring the effect of light and texture. They are simple and minimalist compositions, with strong and dramatic tones, in which the digital painting technique is applied in its most elementary sense.

ANGEL’S WINGS (36x44 cm) EDITION OF 10
In this composition, predominantly in yellow, curved and oval shapes and lines are explored. The surface of the paper participates with its texture, reinforcing a feminine, soft and warm "mood".

IN-QUIETUDE (68x45 cm) EDITION OF 10
Two geometric structures with a pentagonal base and different dimensions overlap, creating a somewhat mysterious depth effect, a kind of "sweet prison". The restlessness (inquietude) comes from the tension caused by the unusual presence of one dark contrasting element in the composition.

“FANTASIA I, II, III” (32X22 cm) EDITION 1+2AP

AD LIBITUM (detail) (20x31,5 cm) EDITION OF 10

HYPNOS (63x47 cm) EDITION 1+2AP
Hypnos, the god of sleep in Greek mythology, gives the name to this piece that evokes the labyrinthine sensation of "plunging" into a deep and hypnotic blue. Here the pixel/line-based painting technique represented a remarkable achievement challenge.

UNTITLED (38x55 cm) EDITION 1+2AP

“About the spiritual, this subtle and “so little modern” dimension, but to which Art will always aspire, I hope you can find it in the mystery and tranquility of abstract compositions, in the minimalist “silence” that permeates them, in its poetics of color, sometimes happy and passionate, sometimes dramatic, almost monochromatic, but made of rhythmic subtleties of mathematical or musical inspiration, in the richness of textures, and in the persistent search for an internal “order”, through the use of line and brand frequently drawing pattern movements.”

— ALLEN PIRES

INDICO (90X60 cm) EDITION 1+2AP
"Indian", the calm ocean of clear and warm waters is evoked here in another of the several pieces from the "Linescapes" series, in an abstract suggestion of sea and sun.

TRIPTYCH OF THE DAY: MATINAL / SOLARIS / NOTTURNO (90X60 cm) EDITION 1+2AP

Conceived from “lines”, “marks”, and color, the 3 pieces “Matinal”, “Solaris” and “Notturno” can be grouped in the so-called “Abstract Triptych of the Day”. Matinal represents the pale blue sunrise of day, a kind of soft curtain unfolding over the deep black of night; Solaris is the midday sun, at its zenith point radiating heat and light; Notturno represents night, darkness imposing its absolute domain of silence...