Marku Rodriigu (b. 2000) transforms familiar materials and objects into tactile, visually arresting icons through casting, mould-making and contemporary fabrication. Growing up in his family’s souvenir shop on the island of Madeira, surrounded by handcrafted objects, religious imagery and mass-produced commodities, sparked an enduring fascination with soft power, taste and the construction of self. Moving between historical craftsmanship and the use of emerging technologies, Rodriigu brings bronze, iron and porcelain into dialogue with plastics, rubber, recycled aluminium and reclaimed glass. From imploded molten-glass skulls to chickens laying golden eggs, his sculptures form a distinct visual liturgy in which the familiar becomes charged, unstable and strangely seductive.
Making is Rodriigu’s primary form of research. Recycled metals, glass and appropriated materials undergo processes of breaking, melting, casting, polishing and reformation, carrying traces of labour, pressure and previous states into new forms. Through these transformations, sculpture becomes less a fixed object than an active encounter between body, material and behaviour. Familiar forms are reworked into vessels for desire, belief, obedience, authority, vulnerability and value, while humour and unease remain in constant proximity. Rodriigu is interested in how sculpture can operate beyond representation: as a physical experience capable of directing attention, provoking instinctive responses and testing the limits between object, ritual, signal and action.
In 2022, Rodriigu earned a BA (Hons) in Glass and Ceramics from the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, United Kingdom, and, in 2023, an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art, London. From 2019 to 2024, he also pursued a mentorship with Mike Davies CBE, founding partner of the Richard Rogers Partnership, known for architectural landmarks including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and Heathrow Terminal 5, London.
Rodriigu is the recipient of awards including the Glass Prize Artist Award from Warm Glass, United Kingdom (2021) and Public Choice UK New Artist of the Year Award from Saatchi Gallery, London (2022). His work has been exhibited at institutions including Tate Modern and Camden Arts Centre, London, and The UK National Glass Centre, Sunderland.
