Sculpture by Fábio Colaço

Although he explores multiple media, Fábio Colaço’s work focuses primarily on sculpture and on investigating the relationship between power and language, as well as how discourses, images, and symbolic structures have become normative today. Irony, humor, and subversion are structuring elements of his practice, functioning as strategies to question established paradigms. Grace presents a moment of tension between beauty and threat. The work is an allegory of the present, in a world where power and production simulate stability but collapse internally. The diamond represents the illusion of solidity underlying capitalist ideology. The suspended knife signals latent danger through anticipation, reflecting a regime of surveillance and control. Lauren Berlant’s idea of cruel optimism underpins the work, and our attachment to promises of stability keeps us trapped in a hostile system. The grace evoked by the title is fragile and political. Fábio Colaço participates regularly in solo and group exhibitions, and his work is held in public and private collections in Portugal and abroad.