The exhibition of Las Palmas brings some novelties to the Chain Reaction project. Contrary to what has been the norm in this cycle, this is not an individual exhibition, nor is Las Palmas the pseudonym of any artist. In fact, Las Palmas is the name of an exhibition space managed by artists, and founded in 2017 by Aires de Gameiro, Hugo Gomes, Nuno Ferreira and Pedro Cabrita Paiva. As happens with most projects of this nature, Las Palmas is not exclusively intended to show the works of its founders, but is instead designed to use solo and group exhibitions to explore a territory – in this case, a territory that is gradually being constructed along the way. As in the situationist psychogeography, this territory is not necessarily composed of neighbourhoods: it is made of choices, alignments, the coming together of sometimes distant singularities, but ones which mutually recognise and acknowledge one another, and, in this spirit of collaboration, succeed in contributing to the reinforcement of the same shared energy.

When considered in relation to the proverbial good taste and seriousness of Portuguese art, the energy that has been fed by the Las Palmas project is as exotic as its name suggests. Here, the use of colour is in no way intimidated, just as there are no reservations about the impulse towards abjectness, irony, spitefulness or negligence. Las Palmas is a field of freedom and experimentation in progress. A risk shared between peers – both Portuguese and foreigners – against a backdrop of shocking pink.

With Aires de Gameiro, Arno Beck, Carlota Bóia Neto, Catherine Telford-Keogh, Eduardo Fonseca e Silva, Francisca Valador, Guillermo Ros, Holly Hendry, Hugo Brazão, Isabel Cordovil, Jason Dodge, José Taborda, Lea Managil, Line Lyhne, Lito Kattou, Maria Miguel von Hafe, Nuno Ferreira, Pedro Cabrita Paiva, Primeira Desordem, Rowena Harris, Rui Castanho, Sara Graça and Stefan Klein.