Casca

Painter, sculptor | Angola / UK

Casca (1976), is a self-taught artist born in Lisbon from an artist family with Angolan relatives. He is one of the few Angolan Luso artists in the world of contemporary Angolan art. His paintings drawings, collages and sculptures are deeply influenced by the masks, symbolism and ancient stories of indigenous Angolan cultures a.o. the Chokweh people in North Angola, whom he studied and lived with in his formative years. 

“I believe that art is able to liberate the human being from individual thoughts, allowing the exchange and union of cultures, perpetuating the thoughts of humanity, adding and refining
knowledge, moral and human values.”

Portrait

Born from an artist family in Lisbon, Casca picked up drawing and painting from a young age, but only started exhibiting as a professional artist in 2016. In his formative years he moved and settled down in Angola where he studied, amongst others, for many years indigenous cultures in North and later South Angola. Casca’s work is deeply influenced by these indigenous cultures, which he places in a unique contemporary setting in a mixture of sculptures, paintings, collage and drawings.

In his latest studies he paints series of observed characters that populate our contemporary society, brought back to memory by single phrases on each page of a novel, functioning as sketchbook. In his own unique colourful style, he combines drawing and painting on canvas in his Survivor-series, creating distorted abstract faces, combining indigenous patterns, masks and symbolism in a unique comic style with influences of street art and pop art. 

In his upcoming solo exhibition The Book of Casca the untrue story on Congo in a leisure travel book from 1830 inspires him to resketch on its pages a truthful contemporary world with ancient roots, adding rewritten texts as new layers of meaning to the related paintings.

Since Casca started exhibiting in 2016 in Angola, he has participated in various exhibitions in Angola, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK (London, Birmingham and the Peterborough museum).

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Credentials

Solo exhibitions

2021

The book of Casca, OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, Netherlands (coming soon)

2016

EVIAVYO, Chiquitos, Coffee and Art, Benguela, Angola 

Group exhibitions

2023

#Faces, OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, The Netherlands

2022

DAF Cologne via OpenArtExchange, Cologne, Germany

2021

ARX Africa 2021-2022 via Angolan Embassy/German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Berlin, Germany)

ST’ART Strasbourg via OpenArtExchange, France

ART Laren via OpenArtExchange, Netherlands)

Art Drive-in show Nachtbroetchen, Airport Bonn-Cologne via OpenArtExchange, Germany

2020

Kaluandando.com, 3rd ed/nov 2020, GAV Galeria de Arte Virtual, Angola

Discovery Art Fair Frankfurt via OpenArtExchange, Germany

Roots, OpenArtExchange, Schiedam,  Netherlands

2019

It’s the culture exhibition, The Crib-custard factory, Digbeth, Birmingham

2018

We’re still at daycare 333, Adonis Fortunato Art Gallery, Luanda, Angola 

Contemporary exhibition Peterborough Museum Art Gallery, Peterborough, UK

United by Painting-Mathews yard Gallery, London, UK 

2017
Tribute to 400 years of Benguela, Casca and Guilherme Manpuya- Hotel terminus, Benguela, Angola 

National Jaango, She Art Gallery, Luanda, Angola 

 Presence is key, Adonis Fortunato Art Gallery, Luanda, Angola 

Kaluandando.com/ Portuguese Cultural Center at the Portuguese Embassy in Luanda), Luanda, Angola 

Kaluandando.com, Soap Factory, Luanda, Angola 

Art installations on festivals

2017 

Etimba fest, Benguela, Angola

2016
Children’s theatrical music, Atlantico cine theater, Luanda, Angola 

Rock on the Catumbela River, Benguela, Angola