Acclaimed Angolan artist Ana Silva, whose work incorporates personal experiences and key aspects of world history, will have her first exhibition in France, from Sept. 4 to Oct. 30.
Titled “Portrait
de Famille” (Family Portrait), the show takes place at the Magnin-A gallery
in Paris, comprising about 30 pieces - some of which are up to three
meters high. Several of Silva’s artworks will
also be shown at the popular Art Paris Art Fair, Sept. 9 - 12.
The artist uses embroidery, netting and a range of
fabrics to create her works, tracing her techniques to her experiences in Angola.
She says that war-time scarcities meant she had to explore what was available.
Now she gathers materials from markets in Luanda and from other sources.
Silva’s art of embroidery is “imbued with the figures of
women, their knowledge and their gaze”, according to the Magnin-A gallery. The current
show features the most important women in her life.
“These works express the passage from my grandmother's
life to that of my daughter. It's a project I've had in mind for a long time,” Silva
says.
Her daughter was born in Portugal (where Silva is based)
and travelled to Angola for the first time at the age of three to meet the
family and Silva’s grandmother.
“It was important to me that they met,” Silva says. “My
grandmother was a descendant of the oldest ethnic grounp in southern Africa.
She died five months after meeting my daughter. It was from this moment that I
began to want to work on this story, that of the passage.”
For more information, see: http://magnin-a.com/fr/actualites/article/226/ana-silva
Photos: Ana Silva and her artwork, courtesy of the
Magnin-A gallery.
