Tomás Ribas (Rio de Janeiro, 1976) is a visual artist and light designer. As an artist he is inter-ested in the political dimension of light and the way it can manipulate the perception of spac-es. He participated in exhibitions in Brazil, France, Holland, Sweden, Czech Republic and South Korea.
He is a PhD student in Plastic Arts and Master in Art and Design for the Public Space by the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto – PT, a Bachelor’s Degree in Scenography from Uni-Rio, studied contemporary sculpture with Iole de Freitas at the School of Visual Arts at Parque Lage, in Rio de Janeiro, and did an exchange at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts of Paris, where he studied with Christian Boltanski.
In the last twenty years he collaborated with important Brazilian directors and re-ceived three Shell awards, one Cesgranrio award and two Critical Question awards in the best lighting category.
In Portugal, he held the SOS exhibition with Aurora dos Campos, and participated as a light designer in the shows Cortado por Todos os Sados, Open in Every Corner and Be-tween Dogs and Wolves, by Gustavo Ciríaco; Dying in the Theater and Um Tigre Lírio is Hard to Find , by Alex Cassal; Zoo, a Musical and Journey to the Human Body, by producer Plano 6, and the Aga Khan Music Award at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.