Paulo Kapela

Mestre Paulo Kapela (1947, Angola) is a first and foremost a self-directed artist. Kapela began painting in the early 1960s upon enrolling at the Poto-Poto School of Painting in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. He finally settled in Luanda and opened his atelier where he met a number of artists, who later became active and important members of UNAP (the National Union of Visual Artists). Kapela is known for iconic works such as the installations of altars, and for the use of collage, text and narrative to produce complex pieces that intertwine his own personal story of migration between Luanda and the Congo, between being simultaneously a local and a foreigner within the historical framework of Angola’s politics. Despite having been an important figure and a master to many of today’s well-known contemporary artists, Kapela has gone through a difficult period, living under precarious conditions which somehow fuelled his creative spirit, leading him to experiment with and develop other techniques and media beyond traditional painting, such as collage, writing, stencils, and recycling materials.