Blackson Afonso

Angola

"Blackson’s work unfolds as a meditative exploration of the Black body — not only as subject, but as presence, archive, and vision. Through a visual language in constant evolution, he reclaims and affirms the Black body in both society and the artistic canon, invoking histories while imagining futures shaped by justice and harmony.

At the heart of his practice lies a tension between opposites: the simplicity and complexity of everyday life, the individual and the collective, the intimate and the universal. His canvases are spaces where these dualities coexist, where human emotion and social reflection intersect in layered, symbolic forms.

His paintings do not seek to document life as it is, but rather to translate it into states of balance — where colour, composition, and gesture evoke a sense of serenity without denying struggle. Harmony becomes not an aesthetic choice, but an ethical position; an act of resistance and a proposal for renewal.

Working often in large-scale formats, Blackson associates scale with freedom — a recurring concept in his work. The monumental dimensions of his canvases are not merely physical, but conceptual: they open space for breath, for dignity, for the reimagining of existence.

In his world, painting becomes a place of affirmation — a quiet insistence that another future is not only possible, but already taking shape.
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MEET

Blackson Afonso

Born in 1983 in Uíge, Angola, Blackson studied Painting in Budapest and Architecture in Lisbon, where he currently lives and works.

His journey across geographies and disciplines informs a practice rooted in both formal precision and poetic introspection. Moving fluidly between the worlds of visual arts and spatial design, Blackson has developed a distinctive artistic voice — one that reflects a deep engagement with identity, memory, and the possibilities of transformation.

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