At this pivotal stage—having recently graduated from my MA at the Royal College of Art—I am consolidating my professional practice and laying the groundwork for my first solo exhibition. The Dover Prize would provide the space, support, and critical momentum to take the next confident step in my career. It would not only enable the development of a new body of work but act as a vital catalyst in establishing a sustainable and publicly engaged artistic trajectory.
If successful, I would use the bursary to undertake a focused series of research visits across the North East—a region that has profoundly shaped my practice. Having spent years living, studying, and working there, including time on the shop floor with fabrication teams for Nissan Motor Corporation, I developed a deep connection to the people and environments of industrial production. It was there I first came to understand how repetition, safety culture, camaraderie, and the aesthetics of labour could be translated into the symbolic and visual language that defines my work today.
The award would support travel, research, and engagement across key live and historical sites—including Darlington, home to the historic North Road Locomotive Works, pivotal during WWII for locomotive and munitions production, and a landmark in local labour transformation as women entered engineering roles on an unprecedented scale. I also plan to visit the Starfish Decoy Site at Great Burdon—an ingenious example of visual deception used to protect critical infrastructure during wartime.
This project is not nostalgic; it is a strategic and forward-looking inquiry into how the aesthetics of wartime power have evolved into the visual language of contemporary media, branding, and institutional representation. I would use part of the bursary to acquire recording equipment and initiate production of a new body of work that would involve direct collaboration with local communities.
The Dover Prize would be instrumental in making this work—and my first solo exhibition—a reality, giving me the crucial push to step up my career as an artist.
Receiving the Dover Prize would allow me to re-engage with the North East—particularly Darlington—not as a subject of nostalgia, but as a site of contemporary significance. My practice reframes industrial and wartime legacies through a celebratory and provocative lens, revealing how structures of power and representation from the past continue to shape the narratives of our modern world.
Darlington’s heritage—from the North Road Locomotive Works, which catalysed a radical shift in labour roles during WWII, to the Starfish Decoy Site at Great Burdon, a sophisticated wartime visual deception—offers a unique foundation for exploring how history and strategy intersect. By embedding these stories into my work, I aim to foreground the region’s relevance within wider global cultural conversations.
I also see this award as an opportunity to contribute to the area through talks, workshops, and collaborative projects. By engaging local communities and drawing on my international network—including peers from the Royal College of Art—I hope to foster connections that raise the region’s artistic profile and activate new creative dialogues.
The Dover Prize’s roots in Darlington make it a powerful platform. I would be proud to contribute to positioning the town as a meaningful cultural force.
Rodrigues Goncalves is a contemporary artist renowned for his unique blend of satire and the absurd. His practice celebrates a visual architecture of power—one that feels both hauntingly historical and tenderly current. Through painting, sculpture, and installation, he examines the seduction of authority in its most aestheticized form, interrogating how beauty, ritual, and grandeur continue to be mobilized in service of influence and control. Goncalves draws from the language of ceremonial portraiture, imperial interiors, and institutional grandeur to stage tableaux that feel at once familiar and fictional. The work is not nostalgic, but strategic: it considers the post-war period not as an endpoint, but as the beginning of a new kind of propaganda—one driven less by brute force and more by psychological manipulation, branding, and spectacle.
In a world where media, politics, and consumer culture are increasingly indistinguishable, his work gains urgent relevance. The oeuvre speaks to a time when public figures are brands, institutions perform virtue, and the visual—above all—becomes the battlefield for trust. The same principles that once shaped post-war propaganda now structure our digital feeds and adverts optics.
Goncalves incorporates ancient, religious, and everyday iconography to reflect on the complexities of cultural history. These elements introduce celebration, satire, and absurdity into his work, creating a mass-oriented dialogue that challenges conventional perceptions.
His process is rooted in precision, orchestration, and bespoke, multi-disciplinary fabrication. He works with international master artisans and production studios across Venice, London, and Hong Kong to produce highly crafted objects that echo the language of luxury, authority, and spectacle. This global production model mirrors the transnational mechanics of influence that underpin today’s image culture.
Born on Madeira Island, Portugal, Goncalves was raised in his family’s souvenir shop—an early immersion in objects of commodity. His industrial background, including time spent working with Nissan Motor Corporation, embedded industrial principles into his practice.
Relevant exhibitions include Future Archaeologies at Camden Art Centre (2024), CAPiverse & Montez Press Radio for Tate Lates at Tate Modern (2024), Let Them Eat Fake at BWG Gallery (2023), 40 Years of Glass and Ceramics at the National Glass Centre (2022–23), and UK New Artist of the Year at Saatchi Gallery (2022).
I hold a First Class BA (Hons) in Glass and Ceramics from the UK National Glass Centre – University of Sunderland and an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art in London. My conceptual development has also been shaped by a mentorship with the well- known Mike Davies CBE, founding partner of the Richard Rogers Partnership, who helped refine my approach to systems of radical thinking and large-scale visual environments.
[2019-2024]; Mike Davies CBE RIBS FRSA FRGS FICPD Mentorship Program; RSHP; London; UK
[2023-2024]; Mike Davies CBE Grant; Royal College of Arts; London; UK
[2023-2024]; The RCA Grant; Royal College of Arts; London; UK
[2023]; Public Choice UK New Artist of The Year 2022; Robert Walters Group-Saatchi Gallery; London; UK
[2022-2023]; Future Fund Graduate Scholarship; University of Sunderland; Sunderland; UK
[2019-2022]; The Mike Davies CBE Scholarship; University of Sunderland; Sunderland; UK
[2022]; Highly Commended New Graduate Review; Contemporary Glass Society; Dickleburgh; UK
[2022]; Best in Glass; BA (Hons) Artist Designer Maker: Glass and Ceramics 2022; University of Sunderland; Sunderland; UK
[2021]; Winner 2021 Glass Prize Artist; Warm Glass UK; Bristol; UK
[2018]; Merit Board Humanistic Course of Visual Arts; Secundaria Francisco de Franco; Funchal; PT
[2018]; Winner 2018 Ponto e Virgula; Secretaria Regional de Educacao; Funchal; PT
[2018]; Winner 2018 Cria Poesia; Cria Poesia; Funchal; PT
I co-run a studio in London where I offer creative fabrication consultancy services. I am regularly commissioned as a project manager for bespoke making and fabrication projects. Over time, I have developed a strong international network of artists, designers, and makers.
My clients include artists, designers, curators, and brands. One of the most relevant projects to date has been assisting in the development of a glass commission for Louis Vuitton in Venice. Due to an ongoing NDA, the details of this project remain confidential.
I was previously commissioned by the University of Sunderland to produce an artwork for their Anatomy Centre.
[2024]; Contemporary Art Practice Festival; Royal College of Arts; London; UK
[2023]; Public Choice UK New Artist of the Year; UKNA; London; UK
[2022]; Contemporary Glass Society – New Graduate Review 2022; Dickleburgh; UK
[2022]; Biomedical Visualisation; Advances in Experimental Medicine, and Biology; Glasgow; UK
[2021]; The Working Artist III; Working Artist; London; UK
[2018]; Ponto e Virgula 2018; Diario de Noticias; Funchal; PT
[2018]; Cria Poesia 2018; Cria Poesia; Funchal; PT
Mike Davies CBE Mentorship with the founding partner of Richard Rogers Partnership, Designer of Pompideu center Paris, Loyds bulding, london heatrow terminal.
Email: marco@rodriguesgoncalves.com
Address: Unit 25, 35-37 Parkgate Road, London, Wandsworth, SW11 4NP, GB
Local Authority: London Borough of Wandsworth
