Hopstreet is  delighted to present the second solo exhibition of Portuguese artist Noé Sendas titled ‘Praxiteles’s Dream’ at the gallery in Brussels.

A relentless collector of images, Noé Sendas (’72, Brussels) has always let photographs drawn from cinema or art history books, for instance play a crucial role in his work. Since 2010, Sendas has dedicated himself almost exclusively to photography, primarily searching out, collecting, and appropriating existing images for his works, in order to manipulate and subvert the originals as if he were sculpting a three-dimensional piece. In turning to photography as a field for experimenting with the metamorphoses of images, the artist recovers surrealist techniques (collage, superimposition) and updates them with digital technologies, allowing some of their aspects to be removed and remade.

Sendas began presenting his work in the late nineties. Explicit and implicit references to artists and literary, cinematic, or musical creations are part of his raw materials. Specific concerns about the reflection and practice of visual arts can also be added to his repertoire. These include: the body, as an entity that is simultaneously theoretical and material; the observer’s perception mechanisms; or the discursive potential of exhibition methods.