CV Olga Dengo
Born in 1980 in Mozambique, artist Olga Dengo has been painting professionally for the last 11 years. She studied art in the Netherlands where she lived for 2 years as a teenager.
Her home base in Mozambique is Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. She is an active member of the National Mozambican Artist Association “Nucléo de Arte” where Master painter Malangatane is one of her colleagues. Through the years, Olga achieved a certain reputation in her country and although she is still young of age she was already nominated “Personality of the Year 2005” in the category Fine Arts by the National Television. Projects and research brought her to Sarajevo, Lebanon, Pakistan, Indonesia. Her paintings can be found in several private collections in Portugal, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, United States, Great-Brittan, South Africa, Angola, Nigeria en Zimbabwe.
Since her move to Belgium in May 2006, Olga has her atelier in Antwerp and participated in many exhibitions and projects. One of her works on racism is even hanging in the Belgian Senate.
Her work is abstract, expressionistic, colourful and inspired by the strong contrasts in today’s world. Her work shows a strong political engagement and social awareness. There is always a strong but positive critic on society and an advice to admit more colours into life. Her work is often a slap in the face and a call to wake us up from the comfort of our luxury. With her paintings the artist tries to break open the minds and visions of people, rocked asleep by well-being. Allowing but not fearing the unknown and having the courage to raise your voice and do something.
Inspiration comes from a wide variety of observations: a complaint against the speed of time, the beauty of a butterfly, hypocrisy and snobbism, a scream against racism. The artist also tries to change the archaic preconceptions about modern art from her country and continent. Besides that, she pleas strongly for more respect for female artists.
Her work has been described by Prof Patrice of the Mozambican Arts Academy (translated from French):
« Olga Dengo is an artist painter with a strong reputation in her country and at the international level. Midway between lyric abstraction and figurative expressionism, she paints a vividly coloured œuvre in line with her interior feelings or the events of the day. One could recognise some elements of decorative African art in traces or collages. Fragments of printed tissue surrounded by layers of black paint with a rich texture. Faces, fragments of bodies, portraits and texts appear as graffiti, showing an extremely lively art. Without any doubt the viewer escapes from the sombreness and experiences the satisfaction of entering a universe that is personal and collective in the same time, witnessing an urban painting culture that has nothing to do with easy exotism. “
By others her style has been linked to Miró and Jean-Michel Basquiat. (Rob Perée, November 2007, translated from Dutch, ): “She moves between abstraction and figuration. Some works are limited to a number of round forms on a monochrome canvas. Those paintings are associated with the empty paintings of the Spanish artist Juan Miro. The play of colours, the way different forms relate to each other and the way they are put into space. In other pieces, these forms are assembled into a composition that reminds me of human figures. Colours keep on playing an important role, but here they get a more symbolic meaning because they are linked to a head or a body. I qualify them as “happy”, “deceived”, “intense” or “warm”. Sometimes, her style gets looser, more expressionistic. Colours continue to be contrasting. Lots of black, lots of red. Miro changes here more and more into Cobra. Other times, Dengo seems not to be satisfied with forms or colours and images alone. Texts appear on the canvas. Words and sentences, shouting for attention. Although Miro also complemented his paintings with short texts, the ones of Dengo remind me more of the rapidly written poetic sentences of Jean-Michel Basquiat”.
Expositions
2001
Workshop with homeless children at Nucléo de Arte, Maputo, Mozambique
2002
Workshop “Artists against Violence” at the French-Mozambican Cultural Centre, Maputo
2003
Exposition : semi-collective “Assim começa” in Maputo
Workshop “Fight against AIDS” at Nucléo de Arte, Maputo
2004
Exposition at “Clube Militar” in honour of National Independence Day, Maputo
Exposition and workshop “Visão 2050” at Conference Centre Joaquim Chissano with visit of Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel, Maputo
Individual exposition “African Inspirations” in Zurich, Switserland
Exposition at House of Culture “Casa da Cultura” in honour of Women’s Day, Maputo
2005
Exposition, Olga Dengo and Falcao “Marcas e Momentos” at the Mozambican Association of Photography, Maputo
Exposition, collective at the BCI Banco Comercial e de Investimento in honour of Women’s Day, Maputo
Exposition, collective “Hommage to Malangatana, 30 years of carreer” at the BCI Banco Comercial e de Investimento, Maputo (see Malangatane on Google)
Exposition, collective “Art and Women” at the German-Mozambican Cultural Centre, Maputo
Exposition, collective “Mhamba Ancestral Artistica” at the Mozambican Artist Association Nucleo de Arte, Maputo
2006
Exposition, Olga Dengo and Gonçalo Mabunda “Positivo ou Negativo ?” at the Mozambican Artist Association Nucleo de Arte, Maputo, Feb-March 2006 (see Goncalo Mabunda on Google)
Exposition, collective “Arte no Feminino” in honour of Women’s Day at the Portuguese School of Mozambique, Maputo, April 2006.
Exposition, individual “Esperança” at galerie De Loft, Veurne, België, Juni – Juli 2006
Exposition, collective “Crossroads” at galerie Laba Laba, Kloosterstraat, 15 september – 30 November, Antwerpen, België
Exposition, collective “Boulevard Amandla” naar aanleiding van Cinemaf, Afrikaans filmfestival, oktober 2006, Antwerpen, België
Exposition - Open House, Olga Dengo, 24-25-26 November 2006, Marcel en Lea Vermeir, Zellik, België
2007
Participant at “Kinderkunstenfabriek Genk” in collaboration with Cultuurcentrum Genk and FLACC (www.flacc.info), 9-13 april 2007, Genk, België
Group exhibition at galerie De Loft, “10 jaar De Loft” Veurne, België, Juli - Augustus 2007.
Opening of her Open Atelier, Waterfront Art – Guesthouse, Verbindingsdok Westkaai 8, Antwerpen, 21 Juli 2007
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Workshop for FOS on the Day of Health of De Voorzorg, Theme: Health in Mozambique, Hasselt, 9 september 2007
http://www.fos-socsol.be/cntnt/activiteitenkalender/display_activiteit.php?act_ID=103
Participant in Open Ateliers of the city of Antwerp, opening 21 September 2007
Project “Solidarity Agendas” and auction for Oxfam Solidarity Found, 30 Nov 2007.
http://www.solidariteitsfonds.be/user_docs/ArtistiekeAgenda_1.pdf
Solo Exhibition “REALISE” at Galerie 23, KNMS Island, Amsterdam, 11 November – 16 December 2007. Prolonged until the end of January 2008.
http://www.de40eurogalerie.nl/galerie23/index.html
2008
Prolonged solo-exhibition at Galerie 23, Amsterdam “REALISE !
Assignment for His Excellency, Armando Guebuza, president of Mozambique. During his visit to the Benelux, february 2008
Solo-exhibition at Waterfront Art Guesthouse, Antwerp, Belgium, July-August 2008
Participant “Open Ateliers” City of Antwerp, September 2008 (www.openateliers.be)
“Cadixroute” multi-artist project, City of Antwerp, 20-28 September 2008-10-http://users.telenet.be/xdating/CROOZE/Cadixroute.pdf
Commune of Anderlecht Brussels: group exhibition North South, November 2008
World Bank Art Programma, Washington, USA: group exhibition November - December 2008
Coming-up
Solo-exhibition SBK Galery 48, Breda, the Netherlands, December – January 2008
Commune of Anderlecht in Brussels, Belgium: group exhibition, November 2008
“Pro-Patria”: multi-artist project concerning fronteers, (im-) migration of people and social / cultural integration. Curators Mark Swysen en Gino d’Artali, Dominicus Churh, Antwerp, www.the-cause.org/propatriaws/index.html Februari 2009.
Boulevard Amandla 2009, Afro-Antwerp Art Forum
Solotentoonstelling Olga Dengo, Dr Ir Alvaro, Lissabon, Portugal, summer 2009
Prices and nominations
Nomination “Personality of the Year 2005” in the category Fine Arts, National Television Mozambique TVCabo, Juli 2006, Maputo.
<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face @font-face @font-face /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal a:link, span.MsoHyperlink a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed @page Section1 div.Section1 /* List Definitions */ @list l0 @list l0:level1 ol ul -->Invitee at Honouree Doctorate Graça Machel, Gent University, Belgium, April 2008 :
UN ambassador and expert
Worldwide advocate for women and children rights
Former minister of education, Mozambique
Wife of the first president of Samora Machel
Wife of ex-president Nelson Mandela
Co-founder of “The Elders”: an independent group of Wise People with a.o. Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, Gro Brundtland, Muhammad Yunus, Kofi Annan, Aung San Suu Kyi, … www.theelders.org