João Almeida

My name is Xueka. I’m an artist from Porto, Portugal, currently based in Matosinhos. I work across painting and sculpture.

Over the past years, my work has become more focused on building a visual language. I’m interested in creating a system, something that feels structured but still comes from intuition. I work a lot with repetition, symbols, and patterns, letting them evolve naturally until they start to form something coherent.

I don’t approach my work as representation. I’m not trying to depict something specific, I’m trying to build something that exists on its own terms. Most of the time, I don’t fully control where a piece is going. I start with a direction, but the process takes over, and I follow it.

What matters to me is that each piece feels alive and resolved in its own way. I’m constantly experimenting, pushing materials and compositions, and trying to refine this language into something that is both instinctive and precise.