Angolans Grácia Ferreira and Silvestre Quizembe exhibit works in the Portuguese capital

'Gina Diama' is a word of Kimbundu origin, a native language of the north. It is a form of presentation, revealing someone's identity and origin, explains a statement sent to VerAngola by the gallery. The pieces on display reveal episodes of the authors' personal history — fears, traumas, thoughts, dreams, travels and desires, in an eloquent and expressive way, according to the document.

In the exhibition, several works by both artists can be seen and appreciated in the formats of painting, bas-relief and sculpture, carried out between 2020 and 2022, in the middle of a pandemic and worrying doubts for artists.

Silvestre Quizembe was born in Uíge in 1991 and is currently a finalist in the Visual Arts Course at the Higher School of Art and Design in Caldas da Rainha. His work is representative of his aesthetic matrices, anchored in Angolan art.

During his career he has been developing three-dimensional objects in cardboard, metal, clay and canvas, extensively exploring their plasticity and flexibility. In his artistic practice he also uses found objects that he adapts to new aesthetic and formal functions.

Grácia Ferreira is 48 years old and is from Luanda. She completed her Secondary Education at the Institute of Artistic and Cultural Training in Luanda (INFAC). As a visual artist, her canvases and pieces have already passed through several countries and continents, with exhibitions in Cape Verde, Angola, Cuba and Portugal.

Her source of inspiration is art in general, whether anonymous or famous. It is based a lot on everyday things, on African reality. She favors acrylics, oil and watercolor over the most diverse supports, namely canvas, paper and many recycled materials.