António Barros

António Barros (Funchal, 1953) studied at the University of Coimbra and at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona. During the 1970s and 1980s, he organized several exhibitions, meetings and performance cycles at the Círculo de Belas-Artes [Fine Arts Circle] of Coimbra.

António Barros’ work is strongly associated with visual and experimental poetry. In 1980, he participated in the exhibition “Po-Ex”, at the then National Gallery of Modern Art in Lisbon and, in 1984, he collaborated in the publication of Poemografias: Perspectivas da Poesia Visual Portuguesa [Poemgraphies: Perspectives on the Portuguese Visual Poetry], which was at the origin of the 1st Biennale of Visual Poetry that took place in Mexico in 1985. Barros combines a poetic and metaphorical exploration of objects with the plastic treatment of language, creating object-poems with a strong critical sense, irony and irreverence. António Barros was one of the artists represented in the exhibition “PO-EX”, organized and presented at the Serralves Museum in 1999.