Francisco Vidal

Francisco Vidal (Lisbon, 1978) is a key figure in contemporary painting and one of the most emblematic artists of his generation. He is Portuguese, Angolan and Cape Verdean and lives between Luanda and Lisbon. He has a degree in Fine Arts from the Caldas da Rainha School of Arts and Design and has completed a postgraduate course in Fine Arts at the Maumaus School of Fine Arts in Lisbon. He lived for some time in the United States, where he obtained a Master's degree in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts at Columbia University, New York. Francisco has been exhibiting regularly since 2005. In 2014, he presented the painting project Utopia Luanda Machine at the 56th Venice Biennale, at the Angolan Pavilion and at the Milan Expo. In 2016, he presented the project ESCOLA DE PAPEL in Luanda and in 2017 in São Tomé and Príncipe. More recently, he opened the exhibition Luanda Utopian School in Luanda, inspired by the work of artist Paulo Kapela and writer Pepetela. His practice focuses on ideas around work and international mobility. He is known for his large painting installations, tracing strong calligraphic lines on screen-printed canvases in bright colours and varied chromatic schemes. He has works in collections such as the EDP Foundation, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Cachola Foundation, the PLMJ Foundation, as well as international collections.