About Balcony Contemporary Art Gallery
Since 2017, Balcony Contemporary Art Gallery has become a pivotal addition to Lisbon’s vibrant artistic landscape. Nestled in the Alvalade neighborhood within the historic Edifício América, the gallery occupies a transformed old store with a generous exhibition space of over 220 square meters spread across two thoughtfully designed floors. This layout allows for a dynamic range of exhibition circuits and immersive artistic experiences, making it a versatile venue for established and emerging artists.
The gallery promotes diverse national and international talent, providing a platform for artists to engage with the broader art community. Its commitment to cultivating artistic growth by participating in prominent national and international art fairs elevates the visibility of its artists and fosters valuable networking opportunities.
In addition to traditional exhibitions, The Balcony Contemporary Art Gallery is known for its innovative approach to showcasing art through a series of ongoing interdisciplinary projects. These initiatives often blend various media and artistic expression forms, encouraging collaboration and experimentation. By supporting these projects, the gallery not only enriches the cultural fabric of Lisbon but also reinforces its mission to connect artists with a broader audience and inspire dialogue around contemporary art.
Represented artists: Aires de Gameiro | Ana Vidigal | Dealmeida Esilva | Hugo Brazão | Mané Pacheco | Nuno Nunes-Ferreira | Rodrigo Oliveira | Rudi Brito | Rui Castanho | Sara & André | Tiago Alexandre
CURRENT EXHIBITION: HAPPILY EVER AFTER BY HUGO BRAZÃO
About Hugo Brazão
Hugo Brazão (b. 1989, Madeira) lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal. His artistic practice encompasses painting, sculpture, and textiles, focusing on the fiction/reality paradox and exploring narrative possibilities within his materials. Brazão earned the VIA Arts Prize 2018 and the Helen Scott Lidgett Studio Award in 2015. He holds an MA in Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins (2015) and a BA in Painting from Faculdade de Belas Artes de Lisbon (2013).
Recent solo exhibitions include: “Toad on the Moon” (2023, Casa A. Molder Gallery, Lisbon), “Snake in a Cookie Jar” (2023, Voda Seoul Gallery, South Korea), and “What’s for Dinner?” (2022, Balcony Gallery, Lisbon). He has participated in group exhibitions across the UK, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, as well as several art residencies in Germany, Norway, France, Portugal, and the UK.
Happily Ever After
In “Happily Ever After,” Hugo Brazão interrogates the relationship between optimism, apathy, and the cultural obsession with linear progress. Influenced by Lauren Berlant’s concept of “cruel optimism,” the exhibition challenges the belief in an ultimate resolution, framing it as an untenable fiction that obscures the complexities of lived experience and enforces toxic positivity.
Brazão’s small-scale wall sculptures depict imagined narratives, such as a dog in perpetual longing or a bear distracted from a book on decision-making, reflecting a fragile collective psychology.
Central to the exhibition is “Happily Never After,” a large installation inspired by the cyclical lunar calendar. Unlike fairy-tale endings, the moon’s phases represent a continual process of decline and renewal, promoting a narrative that embraces uncertainty and flux. Through gestures of hope and maintenance, Brazão highlights the tension between cultural ideals and the realities of unfinished aspirations—what remains when the promise of “happily ever after” dissolves into an infinite regress of deferred endings. Go here to visit the Balcony Gallery’s website >
