Ricardo Passaporte’s recent paintings highlight the visual and tactile aspects of spray paint as his main artistic language. His works are deeply rooted in the graffiti lexicon, where speed, visual neatness, and repetition are the main features; however, he reinterprets these features by using a studio-based framework that allows the artist’s reflection and prolonged involvement. As a result, he has produced a series of work that deal with a creative interplay between the graffiti and the longevity of painting.
In Passaporte’s work, one should not see spray paint as a mere way of convenience but on the contrary, as a conceptual choice that is intentional. The aerosol dispensation gives the work soft edges and bright halos which are features that for sure cannot be copied by brushwork. In a sense, these features challenge the difference between figure and ground, producing images that are in-between visibility and erasure. Also, the material creates a link with city walls from where the paintings have been removed in parts, faded, and overlapped. As a result, Passaporte tries to capture representations of transience in his work by sanding, layering, and reworking his surfaces thus letting them have an aging quality without losing their immediacy.
words : yannis kostarias
The color combinations he uses indicate that he is closely linked to the world of graffiti. Rich red hues, deep black tones, and dull green shades are employed to create high-contrast, limited color schemes resembling those of traditional graffiti paintings. The sharp contrasts between colors make the images easily recognizable from a distance, whereas surface scratches and scrapes give them a weather-beaten, vintage look. Such a manner of painting not only connects his works with the urban environment but also places them in the context of modern art trends.
Passaporte likes to return to the same themes in many of his paintings. This ongoing approach is a direct reference to graffiti writing, where repetition is used as a way to get noticed. However, in his art, recurring motifs turn out to be a means of giving a new form to the existing image by integrating various constraints. Whether it’s a dog or a child, the artist presents the same motif in different ways by employing changes in size, color range, and surface finish. Such recurrence encourages viewers to look at different versions of art at the same time, driving home the point about the nature of spray paint: it’s not only about putting the paint on, but it can also dissolve the form it creates.
The use of spray paint in combination with acrylics infuses immediacy and impermanence in his art, but the reworks he does on the paintings give them robustness and depth. Through a creative blend of urban style and modern art forms, the artist manages to illustrate how the visual language of the streets can be transformed and find a new life in painting as a form of art.
You repetitively use the same animals and symbols which gives you almost a new personal visual language. What is it about these particular subjects that made you work on different canvases?
I believe that every artist should work with the subjects that are more related to them personally, otherwise it is fake somehow.
How would you define your work in a few words (ideally in 3 words)?
“Fuck you, I am free”.
Is there particular story behind ‘Dalmatian’, (2025) painting?
I did a lot of dalmatians, I’m still doing them, from time to time. There is no specific story about it, I find the breed beautiful and easy/fun to paint.
Are you usually up for creating from random experiments in your studio, or do you usually start with a specific thought or narrative at the very beginning of your artistic process?
Not at all. I am already working on 4 series so there is no time or will at the moment to start something new. Everytime I start a canvas, there are a lot layers I already know that I am doing them just for fun or to free myself, but I always know how that canvas will look like in the end.
Your graffiti-style spray painting is really and extraordinarily efficient done. How do you command the flow of this work in order to get the same quality every time?
Thank you. Actually some of them are technically better executed and some of them are more loose. It always depends on the series I want to paint.
The hollowness of your backgrounds, in a way, gives your characters a presence as if they were some kind of emblems. Is that absence of noise from the artwork or is it just a reference to the way that icons—be it animals or brands—are visually looked at nowadays?
I never thought about that.
The edges in your pieces are quite outstandingly neat for spray paint. Do you employ any specific tools or techniques to get such results?
Like I said before, every painting got a lot of layers, some of the paintings used to be other paintings from previous months or years, that’s why I like to assume the edges they way they are. Also, some of the paintings are signed from different years.
What about the place where you work? What’s your studio space look like?
My studio is in Lisboa. It is a quite nice studio actually. It is divided in some rooms, the room to paint, the room to chill, the room to take photos and look at the paintings and so on. The room where I paint is super dirty, impossible to chill there.
Which are your plans for the near future?
I just finish a project for Teatro Praga where I worked with another artist, Bartolomeu and with a lot of kids from all over the country. It was a project where we coordinate and help the kids to paint the theater scenarium. I am also doing a group exhibition at Galerie Masurel in Lyon and a duo person exhibition at Valerius Gallery in Luxembourg with Martin Paaskesen.Next month I will be part of a group exhibition at Tuesday to Friday, a gallery in Valencia.
all images courtesy of the artist