Tchalé Figueira

Cape Verde

Painting and Poetic Visual Art by Tchalé Figueira

Contemporary Cape Verdean Art and Political Memory

Fine Art Collectors and African Diaspora Artists

"Tchalé Figueira’s artistic language is deeply human, shaped by displacement, memory, irony, and a constant interrogation of the world. His visual practice extends across painting and mixed media, revealing a universe both poetic and critical — anchored in the complexities of insular life and global exchange.

His work resists categorization, oscillating between abstraction and figuration, tenderness and provocation. Through a vivid palette and layered symbolism, Tchalé explores themes of solitude, desire, injustice, and resilience. Each piece becomes a fragment of an ongoing dialogue — with history, with politics, and with the intimate terrain of human experience.

Rooted in Cape Verde yet never confined by geography, Tchalé’s art inhabits a space between shores, carrying with it the tensions, colors, and contradictions of a life lived in movement.

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MEET

Tchalé Figueira

Born Carlos Alberto Figueira in Mindelo, on the island of São Vicente, Cape Verde, the artist widely known as Tchalé Figueira began his artistic path in Switzerland, where he lived and worked between 1974 and 1985. During this formative period, he studied at Kunstschule Basel and soon emerged as a bold and original voice within both the visual arts and literary circles.

Returning to Cape Verde in 1985, Tchalé has since made Mindelo not only his home, but the pulse of his creative world. Since 2014, he has run Atelier Ponta D’Praia, a space of both introspection and openness, where painting, poetry, and political reflection meet.

His works have been exhibited internationally in countries such as Angola, Austria, Brazil, Cuba, France, Germany, Italy, Mozambique, Portugal, Senegal, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United States. In 2008, he was awarded the Prix Fondation Blachère at the Dakar Biennale. His work is represented in museums and private collections across Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Alongside his visual practice, Tchalé Figueira is also an accomplished writer, with publications including Todos os Naufrágios do Mundo, O Azul e a Luz, and Solitário, weaving a parallel journey through language.

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