Gémeo Luís

Gémeo Luís, the artistic name of Luís Mendonça, was born in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo (Mozambique), in 1965. After working in Macau as a design teacher, he has taught at the Escola Superior de Artes e Design in Matosinhos and at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, where he graduated. An established graphic designer, he founded Edições Eterogémeas, a small publishing house where he has published books for both adults and children, almost always marked by the originality of their graphic design. Within this publishing space, he has also introduced new and talented illustrators. He has produced various illustration works for adults and children and has participated in numerous exhibitions, acting as curator and main organizer for several of them. Regarding children's literature, he has illustrated works by Matilde Rosa Araújo, Alice Vieira, Ana Saldanha, Eugénio Roda (pseudonym of Emílio Remelhe, with whom he has maintained a fruitful and long-lasting partnership), José-Alberto Marques, and João Pedro Mésseder, among other authors. Using either painting in his early books or cut paper (with subsequent digitalization and coloring of the resulting image), his illustrations—which sometimes resemble filigree—have stood out above all for the mastery with which the cut-out technique is employed, producing delicate, meticulous, and visually striking figurations that almost always exude a sense of dynamics and movement, coupled with poetic and imaginative quality and a certain surrealist tinge. He is practically the only Portuguese illustrator working in this area, a fact not unrelated to the influence of the Chinese tradition in the use of a homologous technique (an influence worth noting in connection with the illustrator's stay in Macau). In his recent books, one observes a complexification of the technical process, resulting no longer from cut-outs, but from working with color in a digital environment. In 2005, he won the National Illustration Prize from the Directorate-General for Books and Libraries of the Ministry of Culture and the Portuguese Association for the Promotion of Children's and Young People's Books (Portuguese Section of IBBY) for his illustrations in the book O quê, que, quem, with a text by Eugénio Roda. He was also awarded two special mentions of the National Illustration Prize: in 2002 for his illustrations in the book Grávida no Coração by Paula Pinto da Silva and, in 2004, for O que é um homem sexual?, with a text by Ilda Taborda and collaboration from other authors. For the work Trocar as voltas ao tempo (2008), translated into Spanish as El tiempo vuela (Seville: Kalandraka, 2010) and into Galician as O tempo voa (Pontevedra: Kalandraka, 2010), with text by João Pedro Mésseder, he received a Jury Mention at the Compostela Prize for Picture Books, promoted by the Kalandraka publishing house and the Xunta de Galicia, in 2008. His narrative album Berlinde bille marble, co-authored with Eugénio Roda, was awarded first prize at the 15th International Competition of Illustration Chioggia in Venice. Selective bibliography: José-Alberto Marques (2002), Carta a um jovem antes de ser poeta (2002), Porto: Campo das Letras; Paula Pinto da Silva, Grávida no coração (2002), Porto: Campo das Letras; Alice Vieira, Manhas e patranhas, ovos e castanhas (2003), Lisboa: Caminho; João Pedro Mésseder, O g é um gato enroscado (2003), Lisboa: Caminho; João Pedro Mésseder, O aquário (2004), Porto: Deriva; Ilda Taborda Duarte and others, O que é um homem sexual? (2004), Porto: Colégio Primeiros Passos; Eugénio Roda, O piano de cauda (2004), Porto: Eterogémeas; João Pedro Mésseder, Palavra que voa (2005), Lisboa: Caminho; Eugénio Roda, ABeCé de las historias (2005), Porto: Eterogémeas; Eugénio Roda, O quê que quem (2005), Porto: Eterogémeas; Matilde Rosa Araújo, A saquinha da flor (2006), Vila Nova de Gaia: Gailivro; Eugénio Roda, Ssschlep (2006), Porto: Eterogémeas; Ana Saldanha, O Sam e o som (2006), Lisboa: Caminho; Matilde Rosa Araújo, A boneca Palmira (2007), Porto: Eterogémeas/IELT/FCT; Eugénio Roda, Rêve (2007), Porto: Eterogémeas; Ana Saldanha, Mais ou menos meio metro (2007), Lisboa: Caminho; Eugénio Roda (2007), Erva-palavra (2007), Vila Nova de Gaia: Direcção Regional da Cultura do Norte / Gailivro; João Pedro Mésseder, Trocar as voltas ao tempo (2008), Porto: Eterogémeas; Eugénio Roda, Azul, blue, bleu (2009), Porto: Eterogémeas; Eugénio Roda, Berlinde bille marble (2009), Porto: Eterogémeas; João Pedro Mésseder, El tiempo vuela (2010), Sevilha: Kalandraka; Eugénio Roda, Catavento (2010), Porto: Eterogémeas. [José António Gomes] Gémeo Luís, literary name of Luís Mendonça, is a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto and at the Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Matosinhos. He is also an illustrator, designer, and publisher. He has illustrated texts for younger readers by Alice Vieira, José Alberto Marques, Luís Adriano Carlos, Emílio Remelhe, Elliot Rain, Eugénio Roda, and Estevão Roque, among others. In 2005, he won the National Illustration Prize from the Directorate-General for Books and Libraries of the Ministry of Culture for his illustrations in the book O quê, que, quem by Eugénio Roda (pseudonym of Emílio Remelhe). He was also awarded two special mentions of the National Illustration Prize: in 2002 for his illustrations in the book Grávida no Coração by Paula Pinto da Silva and, in 2004, for O que é um homem sexual? by Ilda Taborda.