Chaves | Our Artists – Catarses

In May, the Municipal Library’s Multipurpose Room will host the drawing and illustration exhibition ‘Catarses em forma de exposição’, by Tó Ribeiro.

Part of the ‘Our Artists’ cycle, the exhibition will be open until the 29th, with the opening scheduled for the 3rd of May at 17:30.

According to the artist, catharsis is a ‘cleansing, liberation or purification of the human mind’, and ‘almost all of the drawings in this exhibition were made purely as a form of meditation, expression and emotional release’.

António Manuel Santos Ribeiro has a degree in Early Childhood Education. His final monograph dealt with Children’s Drawing and, during this period of training, he produced posters for some of UTAD’s Summer Courses. He was a cartoonist for two newspapers in Braga and the Semanário Transmontano in Chaves, and did around 400 illustrations for a European agricultural training project.

He has been working in the commercial sector for 17 years and has never stopped drawing. He has illustrated several books and unique items of clothing, taught workshops on his art, taken part in exhibitions and designed promotional and merchandising material. In 2022 he had what he calls the ‘pinnacle of his non-career’, with the projection of his drawing live, during the performance of the Wind Orchestra of the Chaves Academy of Arts, in the ‘Windband Concert Division’ of the ‘World Music Context’, when they became world champions.