Ana Silva

Angola, 1969

Ana Silva embellishes found materials with delicate embroidery to create personal mixed-media artworks that speak to the intergenerational trauma experienced by citizens of her native Angola. Silva’s art is directly influenced by her memories of the Angolan civil war she witnessed as a child. In her 2020 series “O Fardo”—whose title references a Portuguese term for bags used to transport secondhand clothes to Africa—Silva repurposes discarded bags as canvases on which she embroiders scenes from Angolan life. Using lace, thread, and traditional fabrics, the artist creates a visual narrative that draws connections across continents while denouncing overconsumption in the fashion industry and other deleterious aspects of global capitalism. Silva studied at the Center for Arts and Visual Communication (Ar.Co) in Lisbon and has exhibited in Luanda, Angola, as well as in Lisbon, Milan, and Madrid. She was selected for the AFRICANA Art Foundation residency in New York City in 2020 and exhibited at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris the same year.

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