Blackson Afonso

Angola

"Blackson paints with a quiet intensity - each canvas an intimate offering, each color a fragment of emotion. At the heart of his visual language is the Black body: not only as subject, but as presence, as symbol, as assertion. His figures emerge both as vessels of identity and as mirrors of collective memory, carried by vibrant chromatic layers that stir the senses.

His compositions inhabit a delicate space between joy and melancholy. They whisper of histories, of ruptures and tenderness, of the longing for freedom - a theme that pulses beneath each brushstroke. Harmony, for Blackson, is not the absence of conflict, but the poetic reconciliation of opposites: stillness and movement, shadow and light.

In recent years, his creative universe has expanded beyond the canvas. He explores ceramics, tiles, and installations - tactile and immersive mediums that echo his desire to make art not only visible but inhabitable. Always evolving, Blackson’s work remains a gesture of affirmation: of self, of culture, and of profound emotional truth.
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MEET

Blackson Afonso

Blackson (b. 1983) was born in the lush province of Uíge, Angola - a place where rhythm and resilience intertwine with the land. At the tender age of eight, he moved to Portugal, a transition that would plant the early seeds of dual belonging - between roots and reinvention, memory and migration.

He pursued Painting in Budapest (2009–2012), immersed in a Central European palette of form and emotion, and later Architecture in Lisbon (2012), where he continues to live and work today. This layered education - both expressive and structural - is evident in the balance and tension within his practice.

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