Since 2004, Bruno Miguel has been developing his research around the construction and representation of landscape in contemporary times, working across various mediums, though he has chosen painting as the central focus of his obsessive production routine. In recent years, his focus on landscape has gradually shifted towards a deeper investigation of painting as a language and its intersections with contemporary everyday life. His research is notably marked by the appropriation of affective memories from the domestic sphere, using mediums such as porcelain, tapestries, furniture, and objects acquired from antique shops. However, beyond any rhetoric Bruno may develop to justify his choices, the true strength of his research lies in the work itself. Not in the finished pieces, but in the labour of the studio, where his curiosity and restlessness ensure that his painting remains in constant flux. Here, his compulsions drive him to embrace errors that anxiously seek unpredictable solutions—solutions so generous that they hide behind the banal allure of easy images. His research represents a kind of peripheral post-pop, always connecting high and low culture—a vulgar and exuberant veneer that superficially conceals his ongoing quest for beauty. Not the beauty of the painting, but the act of painting itself.

During his residency at CERA, the artist's research focused on exploring affective memory within the domestic sphere, using home, customs, and community as lenses to examine broader themes like history, tradition, immigration, and religion. He investigated how everyday objects from flea markets, thrift stores, and local environments can act as silent witnesses to cultural narratives, serving as a medium to remix and reinterpret stories and aesthetics. The project also sought to reflect on the experience of being a travelling artist, displaced from his familiar Brazilian context, to critically observe and narrate the intersection of histories. This approach draws parallels with how Brazil has been historically portrayed by foreign artists, but now with the artist as both observer and storyteller.

Bruno Miguel’s art residency had the support of DGArtes–Ministério da Cultura de Portugal, Sapar Contemporary Gallery and Espaço Espelho D’Água.

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Bruno Miguel (b. 1981, Brazil). He graduated in Fine Arts and Painting from the School of Fine Arts at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 2009. He received a Special Honorable Mention at the V SIART International Art Biennial in La Paz, Bolivia. That same year, he was awarded a scholarship from the Furnas Sociocultural Incubator for Artistic Talents. In 2012, he participated in the exhibition New Acquisitions – Gilberto Chateaubriand at MAM and Urban Grammar at the Hélio Oiticica Art Center in Rio de Janeiro. In 2014, he took part in the group shows Encontro dos Mundos and Tatu: Futebol, Adversidade e Cultura da Caatinga at MAR – Rio de Janeiro’s Museum of Art. In 2015, he presented the solo exhibitions A Cristaleira at Oi Futuro - Flamengo, A Viagem Pitoresca at Caixa Cultural in Curitiba, and Essas Pessoas na Sala de Jantar at Paço Imperial in Rio de Janeiro, and in 2016 at the São Paulo Cultural Center. In New York, he held the solo exhibition Seduction and Reason at Sapar Contemporary in 2017.