MAAT celebrates its tenth anniversary with an exhibition of suitably impressive scale. Pedro Cabrita Reis – “without sorrow of heart” brings one of Portugal’s most internationally recognized contemporary artists to the Lisbon museum for his first solo exhibition there, presenting almost 200 works across painting, drawing, sculpture and collage. Most were created in 2025 and 2026 specifically for the exhibition, making this less a retrospective than an expansive look at where Cabrita Reis is today.
Born in Lisbon in 1956, Pedro Cabrita Reis has spent five decades developing a multidisciplinary practice encompassing painting, sculpture, drawing, photography and large-scale installation. His work has appeared at Documenta, the São Paulo Biennial and Venice Biennale, where he represented Portugal in 2003. His works can also be found in collections ranging from Tate Modern and the Guggenheim to the Centre Pompidou and Museo Reina Sofía.
At MAAT, visitors encounter Cabrita Reis at his most prolific. Familiar themes—architecture, ruins, landscape, memory and art history—run through the galleries, but the exhibition is also filled with references to artists and imagery stretching from the Renaissance to modernism.
EDP/MAAT.
Among the highlights is Nymphaea Redux, a panoramic sequence of 28 paintings inspired by Claude Monet’s approach to landscape. Doppia Pietà reworks the familiar image of Christ in the arms of the Virgin, while the monumental red canvases of Adam and Eve (revised) offer Cabrita Reis’s striking interpretation of another biblical story. In Ecce Homo, the artist goes a step further, placing himself in the role of Christ.
There are quieter surprises, too: the small landscapes of the Capricci series, intimate and playful self-images from Ridi Pagliaccio, and the uninhibited drawings of Le Musée secret, a nod to Auguste Rodin. Together, the nearly 200 works make without sorrow of heart both a major Cabrita Reis exhibition and a fitting celebration of MAAT’s first decade on Lisbon’s cultural landscape.
Pedro Cabrita Reis “without sorrow of heart” runs through 15 February 2027
MAAT
Avenida Brasilia
Lisbon
Hours: Wednesday to Monday 10:00 to 19:00
Closed: Tuesdays,1 Jan, 25 Dec
Entrance:
International Visitors: €16
Portugal Residents: €12