OFFSCREEN 2026

Irène Laub gallery is happy to present a solo show by Pedro A.H. Paixão at OFFSCREEN Paris.

Since 2019, Pedro A.H. Paixão has been developing a series of works dedicated to his family history and the (neo)colonial period in Central Africa. Exploring complex narratives of struggle and emancipation, the works are situated within a suspended atmosphere evoking dreams, animist magic, and initiatory journeys. Presented here is a blend of personal photographs, family archives, and historical documents, in dialogue with a set of vermilion-colored drawings, all of which explore the artist’s fascination with the universal and spiritual symbolism of solar energy.

The development of the series took shape while contemplating the precise moment of sunrise and sunset, when the sun glows red and reveals itself to the eye, just before becoming too bright to be perceived or before disappearing. The question of visibility and intangibility is manifested in the contemplative installation In medio vero omnium residet Sol, which translates to “In the very center of all things sits the Sun.” It is a photographic slideshow conceived as a transformative rite of passage that traces a sunset until the image dissolves into blinding nothingness and the sun is replaced by the image of the interior of a slide projector. By creating a spellbinding space, Pedro A.H. Paixão offers an experience that is as emotional as it is visual.

Pedro A.H. Paixão was born in Angola, where he lived until the outbreak of the civil war in 1975. He studied fine arts at Ar.Co in Lisbon and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Porto. He has received fellowships from the Luso-American Foundation, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Lisbon Foundation for Science and Technology, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in Venice. Paixão won the international Navigator Art on Paper Prize in 2018, and the first major retrospective of his work took place that same year at the CIAJG in Guimarães. Major solo exhibitions include the Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães, Guimarães (2018); Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon (2003); and the José de Azeredo Perdigão Modern Art Centre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2000). His work has also been featured in major group exhibitions at MUCEM, Marseille (2021); the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2007); and Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon (2003). He is currently preparing two major exhibitions, a retrospective show at MAAT and another at CAM / Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.

Opening Monday 19.10.26, 2pm > 9pm (on invitation)
Tuesday 20.10, 11am > 7pm
Wednesday 21.10, 11am > 7pm
Thursday 22.10, 11am > 7pm
Friday 23.10, 11am > 7pm
Saturday 24.10, 11am > 7pm
Sunday 25.10, 11am > 6pm

Location
Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière
47 Bd de l’Hôpital
75013 Paris (FR)

More info about Pedro A.H. Paixão.

You can find the full programme of the fair HERE