António Ole

António Ole was born in Luanda in 1951 and began his artistic production while in high school. Influenced by painters like Picasso and Braque and encouraged by his teachers, he began to participate in group exhibitions in his hometown. From then on, his creative potential went beyond painting, with incursions in film, photography, and sculpture, without limiting himself to techniques or formulas. Tangential references to pop art and abstract expressionism, particularly in his assemblages, express a direct link to the peripheral architecture of the musseques of Angolan cities. In this way, the artist recognizes the creative power found in the strategies of everyday survival. His work invites an approach to his artistic path as an open work of art, where the public enriches his work through their interpretations.

António Ole’s work introduces the necessary debate about the neocolonial gaze, and the clichés used to define African art. The themes are inspired by traditional art updated through a contemporary discourse, unfolding in aspects such as slavery, poverty, war, and colonialism. From this arises an urban archeology with global aspects, which also addresses human intervention in nature. The landscapes found in the urban limits, portrayed in his photographic triptychs, juxtapose environmental conditions, geological layers, and socio-historical temporalities.

His studies in Film at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, and in Afro-American Culture at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), his trajectory as a director of programs for Angolan television, as well as his multiple art exhibitions and biennials such as: the Museu da Moeda in Angola, the Museum of African-American Art in Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington, MoMa P.S.1. in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Venice Biennale,the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin, the Museum Kunst Palast in Dusseldorf, the São Paulo Biennial, the Havana Biennial, reaffirm his contemporaneity. Without losing the link with his roots, António maintains a constant dialogue between the past and a present in hectic construction.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2017 Magnetic memory / resonance, Angola Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Venice

2016 ANTÓNIO OLE. Luanda, Los Angeles, Lisbon, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon

2015 Espírito Caluanda - Camões, Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, Luanda

2014 Observatório dos Sentidos - Camões, Institute for Cooperation and Language, Luanda

2013 António Ole. Memory and Forgetfulness. Memoria y Olvido, Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Madrid

2011 CONTENTORS: António Ole, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon

2009 Contrary Alignment, Goethe-Institut, Nairobi

2009 Hidden Pages, Iwalewa Haus, Bayreuth

2009 In the Skin of the City, Camões Institute - Portuguese Cultural Center, Luanda

2008 Made In, Elinga Theater, Luanda

2008 Encompassing the Globe, National Museum of African Art - Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

2005 Pan-African Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (Solar do Unhão), Salvador

2004 António Ole, Marcas de Um Percurso (1970/2004), Culturgest, Lisbon

2003 António Ole & Contiguidades, Portuguese Cultural Center, Luanda

2003 Looking on a Journey, Alliance Française, Salvador

2001 Hidden Pages, Stolen Bodies, Veemvloer - 19th World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam

2000 Angola-Brazil - 500 Years, House of Angola, Salvador

1999 The Body of Painting, Espaço Cultural Elinga, Luanda

1997 Retrospective - 1967-1997, Portuguese Cultural Center, Luanda

1996 Breaking Boundaries, Grahamstown Festival

1994 Margin of the Boundary Zone, Elinga Cultural Center, Luanda

1993 The State of Things, Elinga Cultural Center, Luanda

1988 Cycle 1985-1988, Faculty of Architecture, Luanda

1985 António Ole, National Bank of Angola, Luanda

1984 António Ole, Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles

1968 António Ole, Museum of Angola. Luanda

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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022 Red Tape, .insofar Art Gallery, Lisbon

2017 57ª Biennale di Venezia

2016 Olongombe – Moçâmedes, Lubango, Benguela, Luanda

2016 Expressões em Prata, Museu da Moeda, Luanda

2015 56ª Biennale di Venezia

2013 Sentido em Deriva, Culturgest, Lisboa

2013 55ª Biennale di Venezia

2011 Elos de Lusofonia, Museu Histórico Natural, Rio de Janeiro; Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo

2009 Artists in Dialogue (com Aimé Mpane) – National Museum of African Art – Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

2008 Travesía, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

2008 5ª Bienal de São Tomé e Príncipe

2007 Body of Evidence, National Museum of African Art – Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

2007 Africa Remix, Contemporary Art of a Continent – Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf

2006 Leo et  Bos, Art Orienté Objet (com Marion Laval Jeantet e Benoit Manjin) – Museu das Forças Armadas, Luanda

2007 Réplica e Rebeldia, Siexpo, Luanda

2005 Às Portas do Mundo, Palácio D. Manuel, Évora

2005 Independências, Sociedade das Artes, Macau

2003 Transferts, Africalia, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelas

2003 Dreams and Conflits: The Dictatorship of the Viewer – The Structures of Survival –,  50ª Biennale di Venezia

2002 The Short Century, Martin Groupius Bau, Berlim; Museum of Contemporary Art / Chicago; P.S.1/MoMA, Nova Iorque

2000 IV Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine, Bamako

2000 Il ritorno dei maghi. Il Sacro nell’arte africana contemporanea, Pallazo dei Sette, Orvieto

2000 Travessias, Instituto Camões, Luanda

1999 Ad Libitum, Centro Cultural Banco Bandeirantes, São Paulo

1998 Nuovi linguaggi nell’arte contemporanea africana, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, Roma

1998 Dak’Art 98, Dakar

1998 III Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine, Bamako

1997 Die Anderen Modernen, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlim

1997 VI Bienal de La Habana

1997 2nd Johannesburg Biennale

1997 Arte Lusófona, Sintra

1996 Remote Connetions, Art Focus, Jerusalém

1996 Container 96 – Art across Oceans, Copenhagen

1995 1st Johannesburg Biennale

1995 Biombos, Instituto Camões, Luanda

1994 Além da Taprobana, Lisboa/Rio de Janeiro

1992 O Rinoceronte. Pegadas na Torre , Torre de Belém, Lisboa

1992 Pabellón Africano – Expo 92, Sevilha

1992 Três Artistas Angolanos, Cooperativa Árvore, Porto

1991 16 Artistas de Angola, Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Lisboa

1991 Contemporary Art from Southern Africa, Glasgow

1991 II Exposição de Arte do Banco de Fomento e Exterior, Luanda

1989 Art/Images in Southern Africa, Kulturhuset, Estocolmo

1989 I Salão Internacional de Artes e Cultura, Luanda

1989 Pachipamwe 2nd Workshop, Bulawayo

1988 Salão Internacional de Maio, Luanda

1988 Ponte sobre os Mares, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Lisboa

1988 Arte Contemporânea Angolana, São Paulo, Salvador

1987 19.ª Bienal de São Paulo

1987 Exposição de Arte Angolana em Portugal

1987 Salão de Artes Plásticas, Lubango

1996 II Bienal de La Habana

1973 Salão de Arte Moderna, Luanda

1969 VIII Festas do Mar, Moçâmede

1969 Salão das Festas da Cidade, Luanda

1967 Salão Universitário, Museu de Angola, Luanda

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SELECTED ART COLLECTIONS

Assembleia da República, Lisbon

AFRICANA Art Foundation, Geneva

Banco Espírito Santo, Luanda

Banco Nacional de Angola, Luanda 

Centro Cultural Português, Luanda

Costa Reis – Compilação de Arte, Luanda

Culturgest, Lisbon

Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit

ENSA – Seguros de Angola, Luanda

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon

Sindika Dokolo Foundation

The Gencor Collection, Johannesburg

Linda Givon Collection, Johannesburg

Museu de Angola, Luanda

Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles

Staatliche Museum – Dahlen, Berlin

Wifredo Lam Foundation, Havana

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SELECTED PRESS

2021 António Ole apresenta Matéria Vital, Hamilton Viage, Forbes – África Lusófona.

2020 Arquivo, arte e memória: ruínas e vestígios na poética de António Ole e Kiluanji Kia Henda. Revista Africa[s]. Uneb, Brasil.

2017 História de Angola na Bienal de Veneza, Jornal de Angola.

2016 António Ole, o angolano de múltiplos talentos, João Carlos, Deutsche Welle

2016 António Ole, um artista em trânsito no mundo, José Marmeleira, Jornal Público Portugal.

2015 The Venice Questionnaire 2015 #6 : António Ole, ArtReview

2013 Entrevista: António Ole, pintor, escultor e cineasta Angolano, Carlos Alberto Alves, Revista Sankofa n° 13. USP. Brasil