'Be My Guest'

About

Be My Guest," an event specifically programmed to celebrate the gallery's 5th Anniversary and matching with ARCO Lisboa and its parallel visitation program.

Five years later, the celebration is imperative for the Gallery, which, after 10 months of its opening in 2019, was forced to temporarily close its doors due to the pandemic but has since reinforced its investment, establishing a multicultural landmark that vibrates from Lisbon to a broad European panorama. In addition to its structure in the capital supporting emerging Portuguese artists, NAVE has been committed to the internationalisation of ultra-contemporary Portuguese artists and at the same time, introducing artists from central and southern Europe to the national market. Artistic multiculturalism and collaboration with national and international private institutions and entities have been one of NAVE's major marks, having over these five years, promoted, planned, organized, and presented 34 exhibitions — 35% of which were outside the Gallery and Portugal — and 29 artists, as well as participating annually since 2021 in International Contemporary Art Fairs — once again present at ARCO Lisboa this year.

The exhibition goals to establish a historic of a 5-year cycle, marked by the publication of a catalogue where Mercedes Cerón, founder and director of NAVE, challenged the gallery's artists to invite an artist with whom they would like to exhibit for the first time. Mainly someone they admired, without limitations of artistic language, geography, or gender. And having launched the challenge, NAVE (Gallery) also stood by its artists and participated in the challenge, inviting an artist as well. Quoting from the exhibition's program text, in the words of Mercedes Cerón "(...) the 13 artists in this exhibition present 13 works that are the true meaning of the banquet (...), a feast of poetic and metaphorical
dialogues, contained within the Gallery's room space, first offering us everything, the generosity of the intimacy of each one's personal thought, and that beyond Art, is also affection.".

"Be My Guest" emerges as a global and multicultural expression of ultra-contemporary European art, resulting in a splendid exhibition of works from a extensive variety of media: from installation to sculpture, photography, drawing, painting, video, textile art, and screen print work coming together in Lisbon, from Norway, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Portugal.

The exhibition is supported by the following institutions that in several ways, collaborated to make it happen: Embassy of Spain in Portugal,
Goethe-Institut Portugal, Valonia-Brussels in Portugal, and OCA Office for Contemporary Art Norway