“TO DRIVE AWAY GHOSTS”

One of the great historical functions of art has been the one “to drive away ghosts”.


Artists such as Durer and Holbein have depicted the bubonic plague. Bosch and Brueghel painted the triumph on the death, 1562. Goya captured the horror of the execution of The third of May 1808. Picasso portrayed the horrors of war in ‘Guernica’. Munch and Van Gogh with their distressed self- portraits brought to us an awareness of depression and mental illnesses.
This collection of historical art works is bringing to the public a number of paintings that address representations of traumatic events such as war and fire, destruction and deformation, which horrifies and disgusts the people. With such paintings I pretend to leave a powerful and confronting testimonial creating awareness about what’s around us, in terms of natural disasters and the unfortunate never ending wars.

These works show the pain and cruelty of human suffering, and I believe they will alert the people for the need to reconciliation and love.
Having been through a number of such events such as: “a civil war in Angola, being a refugee my self in 1975, a silently witnessing of a catastrophic fire during the “black Saturday 2009 in Australia, has contributed to the works I have produced during the last few years. With them I am exposing the pain, devastation and isolation, confronting both the creator and the viewer, contributing to the collective memory.

I believe with this group of strong and powerful art works I am honoring those who suffered.

Without the rawness, the awareness and the emotion expressed on these paintings we may never reflect on love, reconcile or feel compassion towards such cruel moments of our society.