Add Fuel
Searching for Direction
2014
Gel ink on ceramic tiles and wooden frame
70 × 50 cm
Unique
Location: Lisbonne, Portugal
Arianee token ID
177579622
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About the artwork
This assemblage of repetitively patterned tiles seems to have been taken directly from the mass production of traditional Portuguese ceramics. He mixes orange, blue and grey tiles in an almost haphazard order. Unlike the rest of his work, the tiles don't respond to each other and are individual, albeit multiple. The viewer is unable to distinguish their originality until he or she takes a closer look. By working with gel ink directly on ceramics, the artist aims not just to imitate, but to recreate these azulejos by training himself in the craft. Always anchored in his artistic universe and respectful of traditional codes, Add Fuel imagines a world of creatures taken directly from Sci-Fi comics. With his title "Searching for direction", is this the artist seeking his own path by experimenting with new supports and motifs?
Expert opinion
This is an original work by urban artist Add Fuel, using authentic azulejo techniques. More than a work of art, it's a real marker of time and tradition, perpetuating Portuguese know-how.
About the artist
Born in 1980 in Cascais (Portugal), Diogo Machado, aka Add Fuel, is an artist with a degree in Graphic Design from Lisbon's IADE - Creative University. He began his career in design, before devoting himself to his artistic work in 2007 under the artist name Add Fuel to Fire. He developed a dark, fantastical universe populated by eccentric creatures. The following year, however, he took an interest in the aesthetic qualities of Portuguese tiles. So he shortened his pseudonym to Add Fuel, and set about hybridizing traditional Portuguese ceramic techniques with a complex, richly detailed contemporary aesthetic. His work has received worldwide acclaim and is the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including at Galerie Itinerrance in Paris in 2019, Underdogs Gallery in Lisbon in 2021 and Galerie Subliminal Project in Los Angeles in 2022.
“Patterns are something I've always appreciated. There's something super satisfying about the rhythm and order of repetition (and also the deconstruction of those two).”
Additional info
Framed
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