Artist

Melício
sculptor
Biography Born in 1957 in Lobito, Angola, he has lived in Lisbon since the age of 9. He lived and worked in the Pigalle neighbourhood in Paris, and spent long periods of time creating, studying and socialising in Milan, Hanover, Moscow and Madrid. Together with other prestigious cultural figures, he founded the ‘Pontos de Cultura’ art schools in Brazil at the invitation of Professor Alípio de Freitas, of which there are around 3,000. He worked with the prestigious sculptor Cardenas, restorer of the Brooklyn Museum in New York. He has held more than two hundred national and international exhibitions and has been awarded several prizes. Animated film director for the SIC television channel. Curator of Lusophone art exhibitions at UCCLA (Union of Portuguese Speaking Capital Cities). His plastic work is divided into various modalities. As a young man, during the government dictatorship in Portugal, he dedicated himself to realist painting with murals painted on public roads, depicting the class struggle and colonialism. From clay, plaster, drawing and painting, he moved on to the firing arts, without neglecting the insistence with which the former disciplines involve him. His unique look at ceramics, particularly modern tiles, as a major artistic current. He has developed models and designs for objects, graphics, watchmaking, clothing and cars, where he collaborated with the planner and senior technician at the Direcção Geral de Viação, António José Gonçalves, on the Citroen AX GT / AX Sport Cabrio BB and the off-road Nissan Patrol Cabrio. In Italy, he worked in the ICS atelier where he designed packaging and other objects. He was awarded two prizes. He is a restorer of decorative stucco, frescoes, sacred art statuary and stained glass, in the architecture of palaces and churches. HIPER REALISM (life-size human figure) is his creation almost exclusively, and his bronze and resin cast sculptures stand out. He is one of the few artists in the world who is part of this artistic current. He draws on canvas using dry pastel, charcoal and graphite. In the 1970s and 1980s, he sculpted various types of stone rigidity in his studio in the town of Sintra, where he produced dozens of pieces of sculpture and interior lighting, using industrial and manual machinery. In 1977 he collaborated with the former General Directorate for Culture. He decorated Land Rover off-road car dealerships in Lisbon. Illustrator for the newspaper Diário de Notícias. In the 1970s, he was part of the technical team working on the landscape project for the ‘Monsanto Park Green Corridor’ in Lisbon, coordinated by Professor Gonçalo Ribeiro Teles. Advisor to the Municipality of Lisbon, where he worked in the Municipal Libraries Division as an arts education coordinator. Cultural coordinator and guide at the S. João de Deus Parish Council in Lisbon from 1994 to 2013. Over the years he has taught sculpture, ceramics and drawing from primary to university level, where many of his pupils are now artists. He was invited by the prestigious bicentenary educational institution Casa Pia de Lisboa to teach at the Maria Pia school, whose teaching vocation is the arts. In 1994, he founded several art workshops/schools for children and adults in various parts of the city with the support of the Municipality of Lisbon, in projects against drug addiction and for culture in the parishes, based on the free teaching philosophy of the English pedagogue A. S. NEILL, founder of the SUMMERHILL School, legendary as a bastion of freedom in teaching and respect for children and adults. He has organised around 8 hundred cultural study visits. In the Lisbon City Council, during the mandate of Dr João Soares, I was an advisor to the Councillor for Culture, Professor Maria Calado; during the mandate of Dr Santana Lopes, my advisory role was extended by the Councillor for Culture, Dr Maria Manuel Pinto Barbosa; and during the mandate of Prof. Carmona Rodrigues, my advisory role was also extended by the Councillor for Culture, Dr Maria Manuel Pinto Barbosa. It was 10 years of cultural initiatives in the Municipal Libraries Division, such as the Republica e Resistência Museum Library, the Camões Library and the David Mourão Ferreira Library. He founded and boosted the Culture Department at the São João de Deus Parish Council under its President, Dr Rui Pessanha da Silva, and later at the Areeiro Parish Council under its President, Mr Fernando Braamcamp, where he worked for 23 years. With many works scattered throughout the public spaces of towns and cities in Portugal, such as: Póvoa do Lanhoso, Celorico da Beira, Guarda, Covilhã, Castelo Branco, Monchique, Cascais, Loures, Amadora, Portimão, Vila Franca de Xira, Óbidos, Moita, Alcochete, Vidigueira, Sintra. In Lisbon, he is the author of a 3.15m2 canvas in the ‘A Brasileira’ café in Chiado. The hyper-realistic bronze sculptures ‘The Family’ in the Fernando Pessa Garden at the Municipal Assembly and ‘Child's Play’ in Monsanto Park. The ceramic monument, suspended from metal arches, dedicated to the Life and Work of Queen Santa Isabel and King Dinis, with a historical text by the poet Piedade Almeida, in front of the Caixa Geral de Depósitos headquarters, Nuno Gonçalves School mural on ‘modern maths’ (1968), Banco Comercial Português BCP. Polícia Judiciária, Polícia de Segurança Pública, Embaixada de Angola, Casa do Banho, Alliance Française, Museu Antoniano. Obras na Rússia, Espanha, Itália, Roménia, Alemanha, França, Líbia, Palestina, Brasil, México, Cuba, USA e Iraque. Em 2004 foi seleccionado pela administração do Metropolitano de Lisboa, para a decoração de uma das suas estações. Os seus trabalhos, fazem parte de collecções em muitos países do mundo. Citado em dezenas de livros de arte e o seu trabalho tem sido matéria para aulas de história de arte, teses de Mestrados e Doutoramentos, para muitos estudantes de variados países, incluindo Portugal. Atualmente trabalha como técnico superior de restauro, no Instituto Superior de Agronomia.