CRISTIANO MANGOVO
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019
Beirut Art Fair, with Afikaris Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2018
"ON STREETS OF LISBON" Individual Exhibition and Performance at the Ainori Contemporary Art Gallery, Lisbon - Portugal
Artistic residence at the Ainori Contemporary Art Gallery, Lisbon - Portugal
«THE BOX» Individual exhibition at the International Art Fair, Art3F Luxembourg, Parc des Expo, Luxembourg
2017
Open studio and Artistic Residence at Hangar (Center for Artistic Investigation), Lisbon - Portugal
"RICHES OF AFRICA" Exhibition and Individual Installation at the Portuguese Cultural Center, Camões Institute, Luanda-Angola
"100 PROTECTION" Artistic Residence, Exhibition and Individual Performance at First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare-Zimbabwe
2016
"WHAT DIRECTION ?", Exhibition, Installation and Individual Performance at the Cultural Center Brazil-Angola, Luanda-Angola
Donation of a painting auctioned to support the activities of the “Support Center for Street Children” of the Samu Social Organization International Luanda, Hotel Epic Sana, Luanda Angola
"Air P" Infecting the City Sessions ITC, Installation and Individual Performance at the International Festival of Urban Arts, at Saint George street, Cape Town-South Africa
Job preparation residency at the University of Cape Town, Hiddingh Campus, Cape Town-South Africa
Workshop and working sessions with the children of Cp Lycée Française A.E.F.L. of Luanda-Angola
2015
"GUIDADORES", Exhibition and individual performance in the Dr. Antônio Agostinho Neto Memorial, Luanda-Angola
"Open Studio No. 2016", Individual Exhibition at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, Paris-France
Artistic residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, Paris-France
Expo Milano 2015, Expo Universal, “Seed of Memory”, Installation and Individual Performance at the Pavilion of Angola, Milan- Italy
Designing education and basic sanitation for O.N.G. The Mentor initiative, HuamboAngola;
2013
"CALUNIAR" Exhibition and individual installation in Fundação Arte e Cultura LR, at the Tamargolan Gallery, Luanda Angola
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019
"SURROUNDINGS", collective exhibition at the Ainori Gallery, Lisbon - Portugal
Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2019, Collective Exhibition with the TINAWC Gallery (This Is Not a White Cube), Cape Town, South Africa
2018
"ART CONTEMPORAIN AFRICAIN", Collective auction in Piasa, Paris - France
Artissima 2018, International Contemporary Art Fair with TINAWC Gallery (This Is Not a White Cube), Turin - Italy
Joburg Art Fair, Collective Exhibition at the International Art Fair, with TINAWC Gallery (This Is Not a White Cube), Sandton Convention, South Africa
"BEING CITY" Collective exhibition at the TINAWC Gallery (This is Not a White Cube), Bank Econômico, Luanda, Angola
"ENSA ART AWARD 2018" Collective exhibition of selected artists in the prize, Museum of Currency, Luanda, Angola
"AINORI CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY" Collective exhibition for the opening of the Ainori Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal
"UNTITLED 01" Collective exhibition at the TINAWC Gallery (This is Not a White Cube), Bank Econômico, Luanda, Angola
''VIVA" Offer of a painting of remembrance following the Invitation to the Dinner with the President of the Republic of Portugal, Mr. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, at the Presidential Palace in Belém, Lisbon, Portugal
"ARTE MIRABILIS" Collective exhibition at UCCLA (Union of Portuguese Capital Cities), Lisbon, Portugal
2017
«Oit'Art» Collective exhibition at Galeria Baag, Lisbon, Portugal
«Kaluandando» Collective exhibition at the Soap Factory, Luanda, Angola
«Luuanda», Performance and collective exhibition at the Hangar, (Center for Artistic Research), Lisbon, Portugal
"Representation of the human figure in art in Angola", Collective exhibition at Banco Económico, Luanda, Angola
"Day of Culture and Art", Collective Exhibition at the International Exhibition of Unap (National Union of Plastic Artists), Luanda, Angola
2016
"ENSA-ARTE2016 AWARD", collective exhibition at the Cultural Center Brazil-Angola, Luand, Angola
"TRILOGIA CONTEMPPRANEA", Collective Exhibition in the CEFOJOR Training center for journalists, Luanda, Angola
2015
Collective exhibition in reference to the opening of Galeria Mov'Art, LuandaAngola
"ARTE COMFUSAO, collective exhibition at the Portuguese Cultural Center, Camões, Luanda, Angola
2014
"13th EXHIBITION OF FINE ARTS", collective exhibition at the Pierrefitte Cultural Center, Paris, France
"FENACULTE 2014", collective exhibition in Baía de Luanda, Luanda-Angola. Realization of Painting on the mural of Avenida 21 de Janeiro, Luanda, Angola
"PT_2014", Collective exhibition at the public gallery, Alijó-Portugal
"ENSA ART AWARD 2014" Collective exhibition at the Portuguese Cultural Center, Camões, Luanda, Angola
"Painting Exhibition of Angolan Art to celebrate the 12th Anniversary of Peace & National Reconciliation", Collective Exhibition at National Park in New York, USA
Prize '' MIRELLA ANTOGNOLI ARGELA'' for Painting and sculpture Angolan Artists, organized by the Embassy of Italy and Angola ONLUS, Collective Exhibition, Celamar Gallery. Luanda Angola
"TRACES OF ANGOLANITY" Collective exhibition organized by UNAP (National Union of Plastic Artists), in the Dr. António Agostinho Neto Memorial, Luanda, Angola
2013
"JAANGO" Artistic residence, Performance, Installation, and Collective exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History of Luanda, Luanda, Angola
"ARQUIVO MORTO" BAI ARTE 2013, Collective exhibition at the BAI Bank Academia Cultural Center, Luanda, Angola
"COOPEARTE" Ninth Edition, Collective Exhibition at Celamar Gallery, Luanda, Angola
Collective exhibition at Hotel Trópico, Luanda, Angola
"National Youth Forum" Organized by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Public exhibition, Luanda, Angola
"COMPETITION CREATING GREEN TOY", organized by Kamba verde, Member of the jury, Foundation Art and Culture LR, Luanda, Angola
Recovery object, Workshop on the reuse and recycling of objects from the environment with the children of the Art and Culture Foundation LR, Luanda, Angola
2012
Collective exhibition (in public), Galeria Maria-Luisa Project (Centro Comercial, Viana)
2011
Realization Works of wall painting, ADPP Angola, in Luanda
Mother Africa Collective Exhibition, Hotel / Pousada Confident, in Luanda
2010
Realization of wall-painting works, headquarters of the MPLA / Cabinda
2009
Performing Plastic Arts at Atelier Pintura, surroundings Hotel Simulambuco / Cabinda
"TAPAGE-24", Performance at Academia Belas Arts, Kinshasa, DRC
2008
World Day against HIV-AIDS, Collective exhibition at the Craft Fair with the United Nations, Kinshasa-DRC
Installation and Performance at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa / DRC entitled
"WHERE THEY WENT"; Individual exhibition on the Night of the Cabaret organized by "Les-Enchanteurs", French Cultural Center of Kinshasa, DRC
Individual installation with the theme "The day-to-day", French Cultural Center of Kinshasa, DRC
2006
Collective exhibition in the Furniture Show and Object of Kinshasa / National Museum Institute of Kinshasa, DRC
Collective exhibition at the International Symposium on Sexual Violence (Action Against Violence Project), Palace Egmont, Brussels
Installation-Performance "APPARITION WITHIN THE WORD OF PEACE". Collaboration
Students from the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg (France). Academy of Fine Arts of Kinshasa / DRC
2005
"PROMISE OF EQUALITY", Collective exhibition on sexual violence and inequality on women, Academy of Fine Arts of Kinshasa, DRC
Collective exhibition at the Italian Embassy in Kinshasa, DRC
"Intergovernmental World Conference on the Survival of the Great Apes", Collective Exhibition at the Grand Hotel de Kinshasa, DRC
Cristiano Mangovo’s work is a fountain of social and political commentary, presented as text, context and subtext. A fountain because the imagery overwhelms with information and stimulation – colour, figuration, distortion, multiple messaged conveyed at the same pitch. A cacophony from which images jump out to bite you at intervals, only to be overtaken by other images. These paintings more than anything else hold up a mirror to today’s society and individuals in it oversaturated with information, stimulation, distraction and the relentless pace of the 24-hour news cycle.
But if one pauses to focus, each work also presents a wealth of human and humane communication, speaking to and connecting historical with present day trauma, like the tragedy of Africans being sold into slavery in today’s Libya and the treatment of Africans in Europe through coloniality and as translated into the present day.
This sensitivity to the idea of distorted realities and cost of human tragedy through war and displacement has deep roots in Mangovo’s personal history. As a child during the Angolan civil war, he was sent by his father away to safety to DRC, living there as a refugee for many years and also finding his vocation as an artist and going to Kinshasa Ecole des Beaux Arts before returning to Angola as an adult. So the idea of speaking in more than one language, wearing more than one face in different circumstances is something that is a subtext to his approaches to selecting and depicting issues most urgent for him. Having a career that has given him an opportunity to travel, has also provided Mangovo with an opportunity to assess the truthfulness of the many myths about Europe, which populated the colonial narratives and contemporary media. In these narratives, Europe is always a gleaming ideal of superiority, wealth and perfection and progress compared to Africa, both in technology, infrastructure, democracy and rule of law. Experience, in Europe today has proven that racism is alive, poverty is a reality in Europe and many myths sold to Africans by colonialists are just that. These realisations have also created pathways for developing alternative narratives, laced with humour, hope and aspiration but underpinned by dark realisations and human weight of suffering and reserving for the artist and the audience the ultimate freedom to think and to speak.
To speak of content only however in Mangovo’s work is to underestimate the painter, with a growing depth of dexterity, skill and love of the medium. His brush strokes, figurations and use of colour are executed with panache and confidence of someone building on personal experience but also on the study of those who came before him, paying homage to both the European masters, as well as those who taught him in Kinshasa, while shaping into a uniquely personal approach. It is almost as though life experience, information and images pass through a meat grinder of Mangovo’s mind and hands and emerge as paint squeezed out of tubes surging towards canvas with an urgency that is both dynamic and musical, speaking the world with only the way he can but with an undeniable Angolan rhythm.
In contemporary art, we are often too quick to draw conclusions and to seek to confine an artist’s practice an especially a young artist’s practice to a space defined by text, ideology and zeitgeist. It is important to resist this in general but in Mangovo’s work in particular. His work takes us on a journey and his journey in particular, this journey will undoubtedly take him to many different countries, place him in the way of many different people, experiences and historical events. He will continue developing as an artist, as a painter and as a person, so will his ideas about the world and his art. One of the most interesting and exciting things about Mangovo’s work today is the fact that they are infused with anticipation of change, a dynamic pace and instability which makes any future possible. As an artists whose work we can only partially know by looking at what we have seen yesterday and today but can start to know as companions on his journey into the future.
Valerie Kabov
© 2019
