Nuno Alecrim
Visual artist and designer. Born 1983, Lisbon, where he lives and works.
BIOGRAPHY
His background in graphic design still shapes the way he works as a visual artist: structure, form and the balance between elements. From there, his practice moves between studio work, large-scale murals and site-specific installations.
The work sits in the tension between order and chaos, geometry and intuition. He builds layered compositions from fragments — of memory, of form, of material — usually with a reduced, mostly monochromatic palette, where colour comes in as an accent.
He has painted murals and taken part in events in Portugal, Spain and France, including Gargar, Street Art on the Roc, M.I.A.U. Fanzara, Le MUR Nancy and Muro Crítico. In 2021 he was one of the artists in Commotion, the collective installation created by Vhils for the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, in Brussels. Solo exhibitions at Espaço Sarmento, Casa da Cerca and M Gallery & Studio. Residencies at LAC, Lagos (2024) and Taguspark (2026).
Perpetual System (2026) is one of his first autonomous software works: a system, written in code, that composes in real time and never repeats. Some of these compositions return to the studio as starting points for new physical works — a dialogue between digital precision and human imperfection, where code meets the tactile weight of the hand.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I work with fragments. I am interested in what remains, what breaks apart, and what can still hold together. My background in design instilled a deeply graphic mindset: a constant attention to balance, form, framing, and the weight every element carries in space. Intuition comes in as freedom — in the textures, the gesture, and the physical application of materials. I often see my work as fragments of a graphic mind.
What fills that mind is memory. Not as a linear story, but as lived experience: what I observe, retain, and absorb—the impressions that build who we are, often without us knowing why. Memory isn’t linear; it works in fragments.
Perpetual System takes this one step further. The fragments become the memory of an autonomous system that keeps recombining them endlessly, even when I leave the room. When these compositions return to the physical studio, they open an ongoing dialogue: between the mathematical perfection of code and the flawed, intuitive truth of the human hand.
Solo Exhibitions
2019
Opposites
M Gallery & Studio, Lisboa
2016
Sentidos
Casa da Cerca – Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Almada
2016
Reborn
Espaço Sarmento, Lisboa
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
Cara Adília
Apaixonarte, Lisboa
2024
LAC – Laboratório de Actividades Criativas
Lagos
2023
Arte no Skate
Festival Boreal, Espanha
2022
Direction / Instruction
STRAAT Museum, Amesterdão
2021
Happy Endings
Crack Kids, Lisboa
2021
Culture For All
Fnac, Portugal
2021
Ephemeral
Underdogs Gallery, Lisboa
2021
You Are Art
Braga Parque, Braga
2020
In Between
Artroom, Lisboa
2018
Octo
WIP Lisbon, Lisboa
2017
12x12
Arte Graça Gallery, Lisboa
2017
Merc’art
LX Factory, Lisboa
2016
X Salão das Artes
Bienal, Portugal
2016
Infante D. Luís às Artes
Salvaterra de Magos
2016
Glocal: Without Borders In the Regional of a Space
Wozen Gallery, Lisboa
Public Art & Site-Specific Works
2023–24
Galp Headquarters
Intervenção mural institucional, Lisboa
2023
Circuito Valença
Valença do Minho, Portugal
2022
Whose World Is This
Intervenção colaborativa urbana
2022
Muro Crítico
Festival de Arte Urbana, Espanha
2021
Commotion
Instalação coletiva comissariada por Vhils para a Presidência Portuguesa do Conselho da União Europeia, Bruxelas
2021
Le MUR Nancy
Nancy, França
2021
No Walls
Festival de Arte Pública, Portugal
2019
Points de Vue
Bayonne, França
2019
M.I.A.U. Fanzara
Museu Inacabat d’Art Urbà, Castellón, Espanha
2019
Com-templ-arte
Portugal
2018
Street Art on the Roc
Villars-Fontaine, França
2018
Gargar Festival
Penelles, Espanha
2018
Poesia na Rua
Oeiras, Portugal
2017
MURO Festival
GAU (Galeria de Arte Urbana), Lisboa
2017
Conversas na Rua
Amadora, Portugal
2017
Cheap Festival
Festival de Street Art Poster, Bolonha, Itália
2016
Arte Pública EDP
Fundação EDP, Portugal
2016
Loures Arte Pública
Loures, Portugal
2016
Reciclar o Olhar
Portugal
Residencies & Awards
2026
Taguspark & IST
Residência tecnológica, Oeiras
2026
Taguspark Residency
Residência artística, Oeiras
2024
LAC – Laboratório de Actividades Criativas
Residência artística e mural, Lagos
2016
Oficinas do Convento
Residência artística, Montemor-o-Novo
