Francisco Vidal (1978) - Still Free 2

Technique: acrylic on canvas
Dimension: 50x50 cm
Title: “Still Free 2”

Painting by Francisco Vidal; his work stands out for being vibrant, politically engaged, and profoundly rooted in his transcultural African and European heritages. His work fuses a multiplicity of contemporary artistic languages with reflections on colonialism, identity, and the African diaspora. Its bold colors express the vivacity of his work, also combining the movement of his brushstrokes, strongly influenced by the hip-hop culture of the 1980s, graffiti, and Pop Art. There are powerful, sometimes illegible, calligraphic lines that reference “street writing” and urban muralism.
Perfectly packaged and shipped in a cardboard box.

Biography: Francisco Vidal
Born in Lisbon, in 1978. He is Portuguese, Angolan, and Cape Verdean, and he lives between Luanda, Angola, and Lisbon, Portugal. He holds a degree in Plastic Arts from the Escola Superior de Artes e Design das Caldas da Rainha, and completed an advanced course in Visual Arts at the Escola de Artes Visuais Maumaus in Lisbon.
For the last fifteen years, Francisco Vidal has been developing an artistic practice of unequivocal autobiographical dimension, though this should not be confused with mere self-promotion or a referential author—rather, it is the intimate extension of himself, through continual pictorial translation, obsessive in color and drawing, of his individuality and identity, in an eternal work-in-progress.
Born in Portugal to Angolan and Cape Verdean parents, the artist blends dissonant aesthetic influences—such as cubism, comics, African patterns, and 80s hip-hop culture—alongside contemporary graffiti and street art. His artistic practice, through drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation, reflects crosswise reminiscences of his origins—a transcultural education, stemming from the intersection of Angolan, Cape Verdean, and Portuguese cultures—which results in a pictorially vibrant and irreverent body of work. An example of this visual melting pot is this exhibition, “Oficina Tropical,” on display at Zet Gallery in Braga, temporarily closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, where nearly a hundred works are presented, largely conceived for this venue, exploring the multiplicity of colors, ideas, supports, and references employed by the artist.
Vidal, in reflecting possibilities of aesthetic expression in relation to society and to Portuguese and Angolan anniversaries, imputes significance to a deeply rooted work with his transcultural heritages. Indeed, his works address themes such as race, cultural miscegenation, and the African diaspora, reflecting social concerns and his own self-awareness as an individual, as exemplified by the works presented in this new series. In this exhibition and, by extension, across the artist’s entire oeuvre, color’s fury and the freedom of drawing come together. A remix of references and influences, in free association, that reflects the authentic poetics of contemporary creativity embraced by multiculturality.
Mostly consisting of drawings and paintings, this new series of works depicts the most significant events in the artist’s life in the months leading up to the exhibition opening. Through form, line, and color, everything happening around him is absorbed into painting and drawing. Notable here are the events in which a deep human nature shines through, such as the choice to represent Moussa Marega, a noticeable critique of the racial injustice recently faced by the footballer.
Sometimes contemplative, sometimes critical, the drawings and paintings multiply into a surrounding plastic trajectory, revealing tacit marks of social unease, universal and timeless. Representative of this constant social reflection is the disconcerting paintings of cotton flower sickles, included in this exhibition. Despite their cheerful and colorful composition, these paintings hide a symbolic reference to the times of slavery. The works allude to the 1961 battle in Baixa de Cassanje, a cotton-growing region now considered the start of the Angolan War of Independence. In 1961, under the Portuguese colonial regime, workers revolted in Baixa de Cassanje dissatisfied with forced labor conditions, and the Portuguese troops dropped a napalm bomb on the cotton fields, resulting in a high number of deaths.
Whether revealing lesser-known historical pasts (as in the series of portraits he created of the many figures who contributed to Angolan thought) or portraying contemporary reality (constructed from everyday relational events) or seeking a socially engaged future (which includes his proposal to create schools dedicated to arts education); Vidal’s work repeatedly reflects social concerns in the pursuit of the Angolan hegemon he designates as “Luuanda Rising.”
Grounded in Afrofuturism, Francisco Vidal sketches scenarios of a country past, present, and future through an elaborated, conscious imaginary construction of a postcolonial condition that involuntarily persists, never detaching from his commitment to contemporary reality—whether social, political, or artistic.

Francisco Vidal has long been a recognized name in these parts. He holds a degree in Plastic Arts from the Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão de Arte & Design das Caldas da Rainha and a Master’s in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts at Columbia University in New York. He is a pivotal name in painting, drawing, and gesture that makes color, Africa, and magic. With a career spanning the new millennium, the artist’s works are part of prestigious national and international collections, notably the EDP Foundation, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the Cachola Collection, among many others.
Vidal’s work spans painting to installation, arising from a meticulous and ongoing reflection on the discursive possibilities of plastic expression and aesthetics in relation to Portuguese and Angolan societies and current affairs. In this sense, his work carries a historical and political connotation.
In parallel to his individual practice, since 2012 Francisco Vidal has co-developed, with Rita GT, Antonio Ole, and Nelo Teixeira, the virtual studio e-Studio: a collective of Luanda-based artists with a project space and gallery, offering a regular program of exhibitions and artistic education.
Francisco Vidal studied at Columbia University School of the Arts in New York (USA), where he earned his Master’s degree.
He is currently selected for the Angola Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, with curators António Ole and assistant curator Antónia Gaeta.
Francisco Vidal has exhibited regularly since 2005, with notable solo exhibitions including Water and Light, Instituto Camões, Luanda, Angola (2014); AIR – African Industrial Revolution at UNAP, Luanda, Angola (2012); Water, Galeria 111, Lisbon (2007); Ecotone, Galeria 111, Porto (2007); Subbus, Galeria 111, Lisbon (2006). Notable group exhibitions include Mabaxa, Soso Gallery – Contemporary African Art, Luanda (2012); Republic, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2011); MFA ThesisExhibition, Fisher Landau Center for the Art, Long Island, USA (2011); Povo, Fundação EDP (2010); Day by Night, Lux, Lisbon (2010); and Exchanging Glances, Instituto Camões in Cape Verde, Angola, and Mozambique (2007).
In 2005, he was selected for the EDP New Artists Awards, and in 2013 he was one of 10 artists included in the documentary series Generation 25 de Abril by Abílio Leitão and Alexandre Melo.
His work is represented in several collections, notably the EDP Foundation Collection, PLMJ Foundation, Sindika Dokolo Collection, and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.