About

Pedro De Kastro, aka PDK, was born in 1971 in Lisbon. He sketches since he can remember. In 1994 he began his studies in Drawing at Ar.Co. (well known Art and Visual Communication Center in Portugal), where he started developing his linear construction, hatching and rendering techniques. He went on to study Etching at Galeria Diferença and in 1996 he further expanded his knowledge in this technique with Bartolomeu dos Santos (a renowned Professor at the Slade School of Fine Arts, London). After his second solo show in 2001, he won first prize in Drawing at the 10th Biennal of Young artists From Europe and the Mediterranean (BJCEM), held in Sarajevo. That year he left Europe and settled in São Paulo, Brazil, where he lived until 2018.

PDK has exhibited consistently in various countries, both individually and collectively, since 1996.

In his practice, De Kastro specializes in pencil and china ink drawing and metal engraving. In an essay written for his big solo show at MuBe (São Paulo’s Museum of Sculpture) in 2011, director and curator Fábio Magalhães, wrote: “Having a virtuoso ability to work with perspective and dark and light, Pedro de Kastro executes his drawings and engravings with the minutia of a watchmaker”.

His work is featured in several editions of Dreamscape: The Best of Imaginary Realism.

De Kastro draws inspiration from classicism, romantic landscape painting, comics, cyberpunk, and more.

Fueled by his eco-sociological concerns, everything more or less starts in his dreams (or ‘hellish nightmares’, as he likes to call them). His hand just follows and his obsessed-like hachures and renderings do the rest.

PDK divides his work into two major series: Darkscapes and Dreamscapes .

He presently lives and works in Lisbon.

Exhibitions

Solo and two-person exhibitions

2018–2019

Pedro De Kastro & Paul Rumsey — Apocalyptic Visions, Double Solo show, Museum HR Giger, Gruyéres, Switzerland

2011

Visions — Surreal China Ink Landscapes and Metal Engravings, MuBE, Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, São Paulo, Brazil

2008

The Vertiginous World of Pedro De Kastro, Moreira Salles Institute Gallery, Curitiba, Brazil

The Vertiginous World of Pedro De Kastro, Moreira Salles Institute Gallery, Porto Alegre, Brazil

2007

The Vertiginous World of Pedro De Kastro, Moreira Salles Institute Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil

2001

Oníria, Bairro Alto Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal

1997

Norvune, Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Lisbon, Portugal

Selected group exhibitions

2019

Fantastic Forum Lisbon 2019, Fantastic Forum, Lisbon, Portugal

When Worlds Collide — Explorations Into The New, Keep Contemporary Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

Dreamscapes — Edition Six, Viechtach, Germany

Dreamscapes — Edition Six, Antwerp, Belgium

2018

Dreamscapes — Edition Six, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2017

Dreamscapes — Edition Six, Tannpapier Foyer, Traun, Austria

2013

Psychedelic and Beyond — Selected works from 1973–2013, Les Noces Du Figaro, Los Angeles, USA

2012

Visionaires — The Art of Fantastic, QCC Art Gallery, Queensborough Community College Art Gallery, City University of New York, New York City, USA

2011

Halloween 2011, Last Rites Gallery, New York City, USA

Terminus, Galerie Villa Mainau 34, Zürich, Switzerland

2010

The 13th Hour, Last Rites Gallery, New York City, USA

Society for Art of Imagination’s 5 Decades of Fantastic, Murphy Hill Gallery, Chicago, USA

Lead Poisoning, Last Rites Gallery, New York City, USA

Society for Art of Imagination’s Fifty Years of Fantastic, Galleria Pall Mall, London, UK

Dreamscapes 2010, Kunstwerk Loods 6, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Outsider Art Fair 2010, Hedley’s Inc., Brooklyn, New York City, USA

2009

Sacred Art – Visionary and Surrealist Art, Lofthouse Gallery, Wessobrunn, Bavaria, Germany

2001

10th Biennial of Young Creators of Europe and the Mediterranean 2001, Sarajevo, Bosnia

1999

5th International Biennial of Drawing and Graphic Arts — Masters of Graphic Arts, Györ, Hungary

Art Scene 1999, Contest promoted by Lisbon City Hall, Armazéns Abel Pereira da Fonseca, Portugal

1997

International Print Triennial 97, Cracow, Poland

Awards and honors

2005

Honorable Mention in Illustration in Abril Publishers Prize

2004

Honorable Mention in Illustration, Abril Publishers Prize

2001

1st place in Drawing, 10th Biennial of Young Artists of Europe and Mediterranean, Sarajevo

1999

Honorable Mention in Drawing at the Art Scene contest, Lisbon City Hall, Lisbon

Publications

Salome, Marcel. Dreamscapes 2010: Contemporary Imaginary Realism, Imaginary Editions, 2010, pp. 120–123

Salome, Marcel. Dreamscapes Six: Contemporary Imaginary Realism, Imaginary Editions, 2017, pp. 18–19

Collections

Public

Moreira Salles Institute — Brazil

Municipal Museum of Györ — Hungary

Private

Portugal, England, Germany, Italy, Brazil, United States

Education

2000

Drawing — Ar.Co. (Communication and Visual Center)

1996

Engraving — Professor Bartolomeu dos Santos — Galeria Diferença

1996

Engraving — Galeria Diferença

1994

Drawing — Ar.Co. (Communication and Visual Center)