Ocean Spray
João Mariano
12.06.2026 :: 12.09.2026
(closed from August the 1st to September the 1st)
Wednesday to friday 03:00 pm - 07:00 pm, saturday till 08:00 pm
The sea of the Costa Vicentina at its most magnificent — a force of fury and momen- tum, yet softened at times by gentleness and wonder. An osmosis between rock and water, where the coastal swell creates depth and form. Unstable torrents become sculptural volumes, shaping contours and casting shadows. Saltwater erupts on im- pact with stone, revealing the raw dialogue between liquid and solid matter.
This is the air that has always oxygenated my blood. Fleeting condensations become immortalised in memory; the hidden made visible, deepening doubt and provoking re- flection. An intimate palimpsest emerges — a collection of prayers to this intense marine divinity, which transforms itself into eternity, giving me both substance and purpose in the pursuit of my territorial en- deavour.
work in progress
João Mariano
Cartography of an inner territory
“I don’t know when I started it, nor do I know when I’ll finish it.” It is within this suspended temporality—between an uncertain origin and an open horizon—that Ocean Spray, João Mariano’s ongoing project, takes shape. Presented here through a selection of 17 works created in southwestern Portugal, the project unfolds less as a defined series than as a continuous process: an approach to both a physical and an inner territory, where the sea of Costa Vicentina emerges simultaneously as matter, force, and organizing principle.
The deep black and white that characterizes Mariano’s practice emphasizes the sculptural quality of water and the density of surfaces, moving beyond any merely descriptive reading of the landscape. Ocean Spray traverses the rhythm of the day— from dawn to dusk—inscribing itself within a cycle of permanence and return. Here, the territory is not simply a setting but an internalized substance. “We are what we absorb,” Mariano states, and his photographs bear witness to this ongoing process of incorporation.
This exhibition marks the first public presentation of Ocean Spray, a body of work that spans João Mariano’s career and serves as a central axis around which his other ongoing projects are organized.
Bruno Portela
João Mariano
Press release