Ângela Ferreira

Ângela Ferreira was born in Maputo, Mozambique, grew up in South Africa, and earned her Master of Fine Arts from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town.

Ferreira’s work is concerned with the ongoing impact of colonialism and postcolonialism on contemporary society, an in-depth investigation that she materializes into a concise and resonant formalization of ideas.

She represented Portugal at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 with a continuation of her research on the mechanisms through which European modernism has attempted—often unsuccessfully—to adapt to the realities of the African continent. This project was conceived based on the history of Jean Prouvé’s Maison Tropicale.

Architecture also serves as a starting point for her extensive research into the erasure of colonial memory and the refusal of reparations. Additionally, her sculptural, sound, and video tributes constantly reference the economic, political, and cultural history of the African continent while reclaiming the work and image of unexpected figures such as Peter Blum, Carlos Cardoso, Ingrid Jonker, Jimi Hendrix, Jorge Ben Jor, Jorge dos Santos, Diego Rivera, and Miriam Makeba.

She has held solo and group exhibitions at MAAT, Lisbon; CGAC, Santiago de Compostela; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Culturgest, Lisbon; The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona; Bildmuseet, Umeå; Museu de Serralves, Porto; Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg; DePaul Art Museum – Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; Museu Berardo, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon; Stroom, The Hague; Stills, Edinburgh; ICA – Institute of Contemporary Art, Cape Town; Centro de Arte Moderna / Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; SKD – Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia; Museu Nacional de Arte, Maputo; Oslo Museum, Oslo; and Parasol Unit, London.

She has participated in biennials in São Paulo, Lubumbashi, Gwangju, Taipei, and Bucharest, and represented the Portuguese Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale.

Her work is part of important international collections, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia; MACBA, Fundación ARCO, CGAC, and Fundación la Caixa in Spain; Fundação EDP, Fundação de Serralves, Coleção António Cachola, Coleção DGARTES, Culturgest, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, and Fundação PLMJ in Portugal; FRAC Rennes, France; and Market Gallery Foundation, South Africa.