Exhibitions
Time stands still at MAAT with Jeff Wall
Four decades of artistic reflection on the work of Jeff Wall can be explored at the MAAT in Lisbon. One of the most influential photographers of recent times, Jeff Wall, whose premise is that memory inspires his work, is the exhibition. Time stands still. Photography 1980-2023 , curated by Sérgio Mah (deputy director of the MAAT), is one of the most powerful and intense exhibitions on Wall to date on an international scale, and is also the artist's first solo show on Portuguese soil.
Jeff Wall is one of the most influential photographers, born in Vancouver in 1946. An essential figure in photoconceptualism, his theatrical and narrative style, along with his large-scale photographs, historical and social references, and memory, not instant reality, make him the epicenter of many attention.
His revolutionary fusion of photography with cinematic mise-en-scène and pictorial composition can be seen in this exhibition at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon. Wall has created monumental exhibitions over the past few years; however, the one in Lisbon is striking from the start, with the artist himself describing the exhibition in the Portuguese capital as similar to an installation in a spaceship.
Jeff Wall, Insomnia, 1994
Sixty scenes of paintings at different scales, Time Stands Still , present a journey into Wall's influential four-decade career with diverse themes that have characterized the Canadian's work: scenes of everyday life, tensions and dramas of modern society such as loneliness, poverty, urban violence, and social exclusion. As the artist says, "The poetics or 'productivity' of my work has been in the scenography and pictorial composition, what I call 'cinematography.'"
The Vancouverite reconstructs memories, glimpses of news reports, or scenes from the imagination. His new exhibition in Lisbon, on view until September 1 at the MAAT, features this selection of 60 photographs from among the approximately two hundred works from his entire career (1970–2023). Sérgio Mah, curator of the exhibition, highlights the artist's generosity and the magnitude of the show.
Jeff Wall, A Fight on the Sidewalk, 1994
This is a total immersion in Jeff Wall's work: from his iconic urban scenes to contemporary reinterpretations of landscapes and human dramas, with the unique feature of exhibiting it in a monumental format that embodies his cinematic and conceptual approach. Lisbon has a great opportunity to glimpse Wall's full splendor, with a montage that includes large-format backlit works—evoking advertising posters—and the MAAT positions itself at the epicenter of all attention, creating one of the great exhibitions of 2025.
“I like to work on a near-life scale because it’s very emphatic and has an immersive quality.” - Jeff Wall
Photography by Daniel Malhão, MAAT
