Archive
Unstable Topographies
Rodrigo Oliveira
OPEN CLASS
MAY 5TH OF 2026, 10.30AM
AUDITORIUM OF EP.1 – ESAD.CR
This open class proposes a critical reading of the work of visual artist Rodrigo Oliveira, focusing on key concepts within his practice, such as construction as an open-ended process, the instability of form, and the tension between balance and collapse. Working across sculpture, painting, drawing, installation, and an expanded architectural dimension, the artist engages materiality as a field of experimentation, where the constructive gesture operates simultaneously as an act of building and unbuilding.
Concepts such as precariousness, transformation, spatial memory, and temporality will be explored, alongside the relationship between body, scale, and spatial occupation. The session invites reflection on the artwork as a system in constant negotiation, where form and meaning emerge through contingente and relational processes.
Rodrigo Oliveira is a Portuguese visual artist whose practice operates within the expanded field of sculpture, intersecting installation, architecture, and drawing. His work is marked by an ongoing investigation into materiality, construction, and the relationship between form, space, and the body.
Through processes that involve accumulation, balance, and transformation, his works explore states of instability and tension, often positioned between constructive gesture and the potential for collapse.
Using a wide range of materials — both industrial and organic — the artist creates structures that challenge conventional notions of permanence, function, and scale.
His career includes participation in solo and group exhibitions in institutions and independent spaces, both in Portugal and internationally. Alongside his artistic practice, he has also been engaged in research and teaching, contributing to critical discourse around contemporary sculptural practices.