Transforming Recyclables into Wildlife Art: The Creative World of Bordalo II 

Bordalo II is the pseudonym of Artur Bordalo. He works as a tribute to his grandfather, Real Bordalo, who was considered a rare Portuguese expressionist painter. This choice represents his intention to continue and reinvent his artistic legacy, linking the past with the present in an uninterrupted flow of creativity. That, in spite of the tradition, is how Bordalo II brings generations of art to merge still within the context of respecting the traditional form but defying it for modern expression. 

Throughout the years of study in painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon he found himself great interest in sculpture, art and exploration with different materials. That, for sure, would seem like a far cry from traditional painting that first brought him into the world of arts. It was at college where he first came over to a new media and to a new way of expressing his ever-changing vision. 

Bordalo’s childhood was influenced a lot by the time he spent in his grandfather’s studio. Real Bordalo was an intense artist, and he gave his time to both watercolours and oils, with most of his paintings coming out as landscapes and scenes portraying the urban livelihood. Bordalo contrasted his early years with fresh ideas in that silent creative activity, as well as his early encounters with the murky underworld in crime scenes in Lisbon, and illegal graffiti. Such encounters introduced him to raw and unedited interpretations of street art, which stood in stark contrast to the classics of art that he had been exposed to in his grandfather’s workshop. 

Furthermore, Bordalo II had at his disposal public spaces of the largest kind of canvas in order to experiment with colour and scales. They offered the artist a great opportunity to be in contact with and, hence, process a huge amount of information on these topics, improving, therefore, the exclusive style of art he practices today. Presently, his art is aimed at criticism for the materialist-consumerist society surrounding him. Therefore, his works represent overproduction and consumption habits that result in continuous waste generation, finally leading to the degradation of the planet. 

Bordalo II makes the trash and the waste his leading, unusual, and unique medium for making art. Through this, he challenges the perception of waste and asks people to re-look at what they might take as valuable or worthless. His works range from small to big installations, now exhibited all over the world.  

From the smallest activities, he has shown how a worldwide distribution of art can be a universal call to action. Enthusiastically imaginative in his approach to using recycled materials, Bordalo II draws a drop on some of the most urgent issues of the contemporary environment but manages to point in a direction of potential for renewal and, at worst, a potential for beauty where all too common is to write it off. His works amount to the strongest proof of the power of art to inspire change: they rise with an active and conscious attitude towards the effects of human consumption on the environment and aim at more sustainable interaction with the planet. 

The composition in Bordalo II  work is overflowing with vibrant colours, including electric blues, strong yellows, rich greens, and flashes of red, among others. This piece’s elements include a mix of repurposed things such as metals, automobile parts, and electrical wires, which combine to create an elaborate, textured mosaic. The multitude of repurposed materials is carefully organized to produce an astonishingly detailed sculpture, showcasing the transforming potential of recycling in art. It’s a lively and visually appealing composition that draws the eye in with its depth and playful use of colour. 

In November 2014, Bordalo II inaugurated the exhibition “Attero Attero” (Latin for “waste”), which attracted 8,000 visitors in just the first week. 

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