Art, Architecture, and Technology Museum, MAAT, Belem, Lisbon, Portugal

Material: Wood, Iron, PVC. Aluminium Collection: Courtesy of the Artist and Cristina Guerra, Contemporary Art, Lisbon (Portugal)

BIOGRAPHY

Ângela Ferreira was born in Maputo, Mozambique, in 1958. Enjoying dual nationality, the artist has lived alternately between South Africa and Portugal. She completed studies at the Michaelis School of Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town, in 1985, and resided in the following years in Lisbon, where she quickly thrived in the arts.

She was the first to choose the question of the colonial past as an artistic theme. The question of identity, considered in terms of culture, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation pervaded all the artistic debate of the 1990s.

Using her dual cultural experience, both European and African, Ângela Ferreira aims to discover this difficult point of view that presents itself as a proposal for continued dialog. The artist deconstructs the minimalist frame of reference, undermining it with the evocative power of memory.

The ambivalence in the relationship with the colonial memory makes itself felt both in the treatment of the ‘official history’ and in the way personal references are invoked. She was chosen for the Portuguese Representation at the Venice Biennale 2007.

Among her solo exhibitions over the past five years, the following are of note: ‘Carlos Cardoso - Straight to the Cape Point & Peter Blum Sonnets’, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town (2011); ‘Carlos Cardoso – Directo ao assunto’, Galeria Filomena Soares , Lisbon (2011),; ‘Paradys’, Chapel of N. Senhora da Conceição, Lisbon (2011); ‘Double Lecture’, Carpe Diem, Lisbon (2010); ‘Werdmuller Centre and Other Works’, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (2010); ‘Hortas na Auto-Estrada’, Museu do Neo Realismo, Vila Franca de Xira (2009); and ‘Hard Rain Show’, Berardo Collection, Lisbon; and ‘La Criée’, Rennes (2008).

Highlights from her recent exhibitions include: Outros Olhares – Novos Projectos’, Museu do Chiado, Lisbon (2012); ‘Trade Routes Over Time,’ Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town (2012); ‘Maputo: A Tale of One City’, Museu Nacional de Arte, Maputo (2012); ‘Zona Letal, Espaço Vital – Obras da Colecção da Caixa Geral de Depósitos’, Museu Municipal de Tavira (2011), ‘Appropriated Landscapes’, the Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, (2011).

Ângela Ferreira is represented in several collections in Portugal, namely in the Art Collection of the Fundação EDP in Lisbon, but also in countries like Spain, France, South Africa, Italy and Germany.