The best way to describe and understand Diogo Pimentão's art is from a quote from Tim Ingold, "Thinking through Making”. His artistic world pulls upon the deep instinctual drive that blends his need for pushing the parameters of his focus to their ultimate limits, while mixing it with his innate sense for performance. It's a dance of extremes where each work is determined by the proportions of his own body–his height and length. This sense for physicality stems from Pimentão's childhood and adolescent years. He grew up on the coast of Portugal, surfing its waves, diving from its cliffs. His rhythm was that of the beach, a place where surf and skateboards were more the norm than books. He would draw what he could sense and feel, and by following his keen intuition he found his way to art school.

Pimentão's strength lies in his curiosity and his fascination with the materiality of paper. His constructions situate themselves in the border of drawing and sculpture. At a first glance, these minimalistic objects feel as if they are molded out of metal instead of folded paper. The graphite surfaces shimmer in the light, shining like polished lead. Pimentão’s works defy all the properties they appear to be, raising far more questions than they answer. By his own accord, Pimentão doesn't prescribe to any conscious connection to Modernism. It's a language in the same hemisphere of his thinking, yet it isn't his governing discipline. His works share a familiarity with the Icelandic artist Kristjan Gudmundsson's pieces from the late 1970's. Construed from pure graphite blocks combined with paper rolls in a Donald Judd like simplicity, Gudmunndsson referred to them as "Potential Drawings". Pimentão goes even further, as his emphasis isn't merely the result of his efforts but of the process used to attain it. The making of the work is a part of the piece, a performance of sorts, capturing the immediacy of action. His sculpture drawings vary in size, shape and surface applications. Some have the urgency of a Richard Serra oil stick drawing, while others fall into their final configuration like a Robert Morris felt sculptures. Rhythmically inspired, performatively enhanced, Pimentão's process is a dance that pulls equally upon the thrill of its making as it pushes the limits of the material used.

Diogo Pimentão (*1973 in Lisbon, Portugal) lives and works in London since 2012. He studied sculpture at the Ar.Co (Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual) in Lisbon. His works has been exhibited in many solo- and group exhibitions in Portugal. His last solo exhibition, Extended Meaning, has been shown in the gallery Zak Branicka and at Camões Berlim.