Conrad Algarve celebrates 10th anniversary with contemporary post pop art exhibition

The Conrad Hotel on the edge of the Algarve’s luxury residential golf and lifestyle resorts Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a series of events and exhibitions this year.

The celebration kicked off on 21 April with an art exhibition ‘Colourful Dreams’ by Pedro Guimarães organised by curating art gallery Galeria ArtCatto. The hotel has an innovative Smart Luxury concept and offers guests authentic Algarve experiences and is a popular corporate and wedding events destination. Marco Cogollos, the General Manager of the hotel told Essential Business who attended the event that the hotel, which has won over 100 awards over the 10 years, has a very healthy occupation rate for bookings for the coming summer season.

Pedro Guimarães was fascinated by art and design from an early age and held his first exhibition at the age of 16 in Braga. The success and impact of that show confirmed his career as a professional artist and as result he set up his studio to continue his practice. As a young artist and with the advent of the Internet he absorbed all the Post-Pop iconography that was emerging from the States; he saw the legacy of the great New York Pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, the collages of Robert Rauschenberg and the seductive consumer world of James Rosenquist.

It was the next generation of Pop artists that continued to make a lasting impression on Guimarães. These artists were mixing urban art techniques and unusual materials to create contemporary images that are firmly rooted in Post Modern appropriation. Guimarães’ background in design and his interest in the ‘art of seeing’ led him to create the incredible 3D pieces that are currently on display in the hotel’s exhibition space on the ground floor.

Pedro Guimarães’ work is highly sought after with works in notable collections all over the world: Nigeria, Sweden, Holland, USA, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, France, Spain, Porto Rico and Lebanon.