Sculpture by Hugo Brazão

Hugo Brazão’s multidisciplinary practice—spanning sculpture, textiles, and drawing—investigates escapism as a social and psychological response. His work draws from sociology, science, and pop culture to examine how individuals and communities navigate instability. Drawing on the Portuguese expression used to describe someone who is consistently lucky, rabo virado para a lua depicts a figure with their backside facing the moon, which appears and disappears via a rotating mechanism. This symbolic fluctuation questions the notion of luck as an external force. The work proposes that the future is actively constructed rather than passively received. Combining visual humour with interactive elements, the work invites viewers to reconsider the relationship between desire, illusion, and agency. Hugo Brazão has exhibited at Happily Ever After, Balcony Gallery, Lisbon, (2025); Snake in a cookie jar, Voda Gallery, Seoul, (2023); Cat did it!, Commonage, London, (2021) and Pintura: Campo de observação Parte II, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon, (2021). He was awarded the VIA Arts Prize in 2018.