xUEkA was born in Porto in 1980, the city where he lives and works. Trained as a Civil Engineer, he spent years building a technical career while never abandoning painting, a practice that ran alongside his entire life, quietly and persistently. In 2022, he made the decision to dedicate himself entirely to art, making permanent what had always been inevitable. His work is built around the construction of a personal visual language, a system of symbols, patterns and repetitions that moves between the precision of a code and the freedom of intuitive mark-making. He does not depict the world: he builds parallel ones, dense and inhabitable, existing entirely on their own terms. In three years of professional practice, he has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Lisbon and the Algarve, and holds work in collections across the USA, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Singapore and Australia, a presence spanning four continents. Over 60% of his total output has already entered private collections, making xUEkA one of the most remarkable emerging voices in contemporary Portuguese art.