FROM MATRIX TO PRINT 9 April – 9 August 2026 Oriente Foundation

The exhibition From Matrix to Print, at the Museu do Oriente, celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Associação de Gravura Água-Forte, bringing together works by 45 national and international printmakers, including former teachers, invited artists, and current members. The exhibition articulates the Association’s pedagogical legacy with contemporary practice, presenting a broad panorama of printmaking techniques—etching, aquatint, drypoint, burin engraving, mezzotint, and woodcut—highlighting the artists’ expressive diversity and technical mastery. The participation of creators from Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Argentina, the United States, and Japan demonstrates the international reach of the network built by Água-Forte over the past 25 years.

At the same time, the exhibition evokes the Asian origins of printmaking and its historical role as a medium of communication, reproduction, and the democratization of knowledge. With its unique capacity for multiplication, printmaking enabled the circulation of images and messages within political, religious, and sociocultural contexts. The emergence of diverse printmaking techniques, together with the continued practice of traditional methods such as woodcut, highlights its role as a medium of dialogue between periods, styles, and artistic languages, demonstrating the relevance of traditional knowledge in a contemporary context. By emphasizing the dialogue between tradition and innovation, between Asia and the wider world, the exhibition underscores the continuing relevance of printmaking, its pedagogical dimension, and its cultural value, reinforcing the commitment of the Fundação Oriente to inclusion, audience development, and intercultural dialogue.