deliberation

Ricardo dos Santos, born on April 14, 1983. Ricardo never had a fixed place of birth, after all, was he born or created?

He does not carry with him the idea of a specific origin but grew up on the Island of Madeira, where rugged mountains and the vast ocean formed the entire scenery of his existence.

The island was not just the setting of his childhood, but the fertile ground where his first perceptions of the world and the arts began to grow. From an early age, the arts had a deep fascination for him. He saw the world with heightened sensitivity, as if every color, sound, and movement around him had its own story to tell.

However, for 15 years, this creative gaze was silenced. Ricardo was “dead”, unable to express what was happening within his being. During that time, he lived an internal existence filled with frustrations accumulated in locked drawers, unable to find ways to let his emotions flow outward. The island that once nurtured him felt distant, unreachable, as he faced this creative void.

Those frustrations, once so intense and suffocating, are now shadows of the past, echoing in his works like ghosts from a time that will never return — or perhaps never really left. Mystery resides in him.

When he finally found the voice he had lost, his creations became a form of liberation, a way to expel everything that had been trapped for years. For Ricardo, art was never just an activity or a means of expression; it became a diary, where each stroke, color, and form records not only what he lived, but also what his imagination lived.

“Often, what the paints stain are the fruits of an intense imagination, where reality and fantasy meet.”

His art reflects internal experiences, a space where he explores the depths of his mind, using each piece as a fragment of a larger narrative. Now, each of his works carries a duality. On one hand, it is a window to the past — a way of giving life to repressed memories. On the other, it is an invitation to the future, where artistic possibilities are limitless.

Ricardo’s art transcends aesthetics. "It is a testimony of my personal resurrection and a constant reminder that, even after years of silence, it is possible to rediscover one’s own voice."

By Miguel Marques (Heteronym)