Opening exhibition Ilustrarte in Lisbon

Last week we visited the big Ilustrarte exhibition in Lisbon, where also my work is part of. It's a big honour to be one of the 50 selected illustrators of more than 1700 participants from 72 countries

We took a flight on Wednesday the 20th, so we were in time for the opening on Thursday evening the 21st. It was quite an experience! What an inspiring exhibition.

We arrived at the Electricity Museum some time before the exhibition started. So I had the chance to meet some people, like Ingrid Godon, a Flemish illustrator. I knew her work, but never met her in person. And of course one of the enthusiastic organizers Eduardo Filipe.

 

Just as the Ilustrarte 12 exhibition in Ghent, which I visited some years ago, the works are presented in a very original way. On tables / houses with lights especially made for this occasion. Each illustrator has one, two or three tables. It depends on the size of their work.

There's also an inspiring solo exhibition of illustrator Serge Bloch, who is a member of the jury.

There were a lot of people at the opening. The speech was in Portugese, so unfortuately I didn't understand a word of it.

My work 'Fishermen' and 'bird friends' presented together on a table with the book 'Stil verwateren'
It's  nice they also see present the books on this exhibition (if the illustrations are published). A lot of people took the time to look inside the book. It was nice to see their interest ;-)

On the floor the illustrators names are written in big nice orange letters. Looks good, hé? ;-)

Here's the other print I've sent in for the exhibition: Growth.

On Friday morning we visited the exhibition again. So we had more time to see all the illustrations When we came we saw this giant anouncement on a building next to the Museum. In between some palm trees ;-)

It's magical when you enter the hall:

Here another view on the tables with my work in front.

 More photos of the exhibition on Facebook

The exhibition will last till half of April. Maybe it's gonna travel, but the organization was not sure about that yet. They need to find some sponsors. I hope it will come to Ghent again. That would be awesome!

We also had some good days in Lissabon. What a nice city it is! I loved all the colors of the houses. It would be a good idea to do so in Rotterdam too!