Cadogan Gallery, a leading contemporary art gallery with spaces in London and Milan, is recognised for its international programme of emerging and established artists whose practices explore abstraction, materiality and contemporary visual culture. Continuing its commitment to long-term artist development and cross-cultural dialogue, Cadogan presents The weight of light, a solo exhibition by Brazilian artist Theo Pinto, opening on 11 June at the gallery’s flagship London space.

Marking Pinto’s first exhibition with Cadogan in London, the presentation brings together a new body of paintings that explores the relationship between light, colour, perception and emotional experience.

Working primarily with oil paint, Pinto creates atmospheric compositions inspired by transitional moments of the day, particularly dawn and dusk, when light is constantly shifting and familiar surroundings appear momentarily transformed. Built through a meticulous process of layering, sanding and tonal adjustment, the paintings are characterised by expansive fields of colour interrupted by subtle vertical divisions that introduce moments of transition and perceptual shift.

Rather than depicting specific landscapes, Pinto’s works evoke states of perception. Forms emerge gradually and dissolve again, remaining suspended between clarity and uncertainty. Colour becomes the primary vehicle through which the paintings are experienced, while matte surfaces absorb ambient light and respond to changing conditions within the gallery, allowing each work to reveal different qualities depending on the viewer’s position, the surrounding atmosphere and the time spent looking.

Trained as an architect before turning to contemporary art, Pinto approaches painting as the construction of an experience rather than an image. Scale, proportion and atmosphere play a central role in his practice, encouraging a slower and more contemplative engagement with the work. Throughout the exhibition, the paintings inhabit a space between stillness and movement, presence and disappearance, reflecting the artist’s ongoing interest in moments of transition and heightened awareness.

At the heart of The weight of light is an exploration of light not simply as a source of illumination, but as a physical and psychological condition. For Pinto, light carries emotional weight: it can evoke memory, intimacy, tension and silence, shaping both the atmosphere of the paintings and the viewer’s experience of them. The works invite sustained looking, creating spaces where perception slows and subtle shifts become increasingly visible.

The weight of light reflects Cadogan Gallery’s ongoing interest in artists who expand the language of abstraction through material experimentation and perceptual experience. In this new body of work, Pinto creates environments of colour and light that invite sustained attention, encouraging viewers to engage with painting as a space of contemplation rather than representation.

We are delighted to present Theo Pinto’s first exhibition in our new London gallery. The weight of light demonstrates the remarkable ambition of Theo’s practice, both in scale and in its ability to transform the viewer’s experience of space. His paintings reward slow looking; through subtle shifts of colour, surface and light, they create moments of stillness and reflection that unfold over time. We are excited to introduce this important new body of work to London audiences.

(Freddie Burness, managing director, Cadogan Gallery)