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)