Trunk, 10th São Tomé Biennial

Amadeo Carvalho’s work presents a radical exercise in recognition and expression through portraiture - at times multiple, at times intimate - where the Black figure, so often silenced in the history of Western art, asserts itself with power and presence. The faces we encounter here are neither generic nor idealized. They are specific, living bodies, rendered in thick, dripping paint where the very material seems to demand its own density. In his more figurative series, with floral or colorful patterns, there is a bold affirmation of beauty and identity that challenges stereotypes and proposes a vibrant, Afro-centered iconography. In the black-ink portraits on raw backgrounds, the gesture becomes more direct, almost visceral. Amadeo plays with layering, with the unfinished, with the risk - evoking layers of subjectivity, resistance, and memory. The installation of multiple aligned portraits engages in a deliberate repetition: each face is unique, and yet part of a collective. The scattered words evoke languages, codes, and fragments of stories that go beyond us, but which act as signs pointing to the construction of a new visual lexicon. Amadeo Carvalho thus creates a space where representation is no longer just image - it becomes act, presence, and assertion. These portraits do not ask permission to exist: they occupy space as declarations of humanity and living art.