Miguel Barros creates from a place of connection—between memory and nature, between structure and emotion. Born in Lisbon in 1962, Barros carries the experiences of three continents. With roots in Portugal, Canada, and Angola, he brings a layered perspective to his work. In 2014, he relocated from Angola to Calgary, Alberta, where a new phase began. Trained in Architecture and Design at IADE in Lisbon (class of 1984), Barros has always approached painting with an architectural mind and a poetic heart. His work blends logic with feeling. It shows the bones beneath the bloom.
His upcoming exhibition, Gardens of My Life, opens in September 2025 at MAC Movimento Arte Contemporânea, his own gallery in Lisbon. The show presents three large mixed media works painted on upcycled surfaces. Together, they form a kind of quiet autobiography, rendered in layered textures and soft symbolism. These aren’t just gardens—they’re lived-in spaces of reflection, where seasons stand for more than weather.
The first piece, Gardens of My Life I (180cm x 70cm), feels like a beginning. Not just the start of a series, but a threshold—an entrance into something softer, quieter. There’s a hush to the painting. It doesn’t try to impress. It invites. Barros speaks of entering this garden “with closed eyes and an open heart,” and that openness is felt in the brushwork and restraint. Nothing demands your attention. It waits.
Gardens of My Life II (240cm x 80cm) picks up where the first leaves off. This work stretches the space wider. You’re not standing at the edge anymore; you’re inside. The composition feels more layered, more mobile. Shapes drift between suggestion and abstraction—petals that might be memories, branches that resemble thoughts. Here, Barros builds not a garden to observe, but one to move through. A place where emotions take the shape of natural forms. It’s less visual narration, more quiet sensation.
The final piece, Gardens of My Life III (450cm x 100cm), brings a sense of arrival. This is the deep center—the part you reach only after walking slowly, thoughtfully, through all the others. It’s wide enough to surround you. More than a painting, it feels like an atmosphere. Barros’s own words come to mind: “I wasn’t just part of the garden; I was the garden.” That line doesn’t sound metaphorical when you’re standing in front of the work. It feels like the truth of the piece. It’s a total immersion in texture, rhythm, and emotional stillness.
All three works share a common base—upcycled materials. This choice isn’t just practical. It’s philosophical. Barros transforms the overlooked into something layered and luminous. The reuse of surfaces reflects the emotional terrain he explores—what we’ve let go, what we’ve carried, what still blooms in the background. The imperfections of the material are part of the message: beauty doesn’t require perfection. It requires attention.
There’s no noise in this exhibition. No grand statements. Just a steady, intimate voice. Gardens of My Life isn’t built for quick reactions. It rewards quiet time. It’s for those willing to pause, to linger, to remember. These works don’t tell stories—they hold space for them. They’re reminders of how we carry the world inside us, how every season we live through becomes part of who we are.
Barros doesn’t insist on one interpretation. He doesn’t spell it out. Instead, he creates room—for memory, for warmth, for being. And maybe that’s the point. In a time full of urgency and overload, Gardens of My Life gives us something rare: calm.
The exhibition marks a return of sorts—not just to Lisbon, but to a way of seeing that values tenderness over spectacle. It’s a quiet offering in a loud world. A painted space where time slows, where we remember that love, in all its forms, is a thing that can root and grow.
