Biography

Edson Chagas completed his studies in photojournalism at the London College of Communication (LCC) in 2007 and subsequently attended the documentary photography course at the University of Wales, Newport, until 2008. Chagas’s work has since developed a more introspective focus beyond the standards of photojournalism.

His work has been part of the show at the Angolan pavilion at the 55^th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy in 2013 and was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, the first time this award was ever made to an African Pavilion.

Solo exhibitions include: Found Not Taken, Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto, Canada (2015); Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA (2015); Making Africa, A Continent of Contemporary Design Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain (2015); Edson Chagas / Ibrahim Mahama, Apalazzo Gallery, Brescia, Italy (2015); Novo Banco Photo Award 2015, Museu Colecao Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal (2015).

Group exhibitions include: Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015 at MOMA The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (2015), The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists at Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA (2015); Landscapes at A Palazzo Gallery in Brescia, Italy (2013); SP-Arte, São Paulo, Brazil (2011); the MABAXA project in Luanda, Angola and RAVY – Rencontre d’Arts Visuels, in Yaoundé, Cameroon (2012); 2nd Luanda Triennial, Angola (2010).

In 2011 he also took part in a workshop in Ethiopia, invited by the German organization GIZ – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, which culminated in various exhibitions, in 2012 at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn, Germany, the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa and later in Angola. On the same year, Edson’s work was part of the exhibition NO FLY ZONE Unlimited Mileage with a group of five other Angolan contemporary artists at Museu Colecção Berardo in Lisbon, Portugal.

Edson Chagas lives and works in Luanda, combining his artistic work with the job of image editor for the Angolan newspaper Expansão, where he has worked for the past three years. More than “portraying” reality or what that means for a large audience, Edson Chagas is interested in social issues and the relationship between time and space; his work can be considered abstract, but without disregarding a social context.

Education

2008

Documentary Photography, University of Wales, Newport, UK.

2007

Photojournalism, London College of Communication, London, UK.

2002

Photography, Escola Técnica de Imagem e Comunicação, Portugal.

1999

Photography and Audio, Centro Comunitário de Arcena, Portugal.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2017

Solo exhibition, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa. (forthcoming)

2015

Novo Banco Photo Award 2015, Museu Colecao Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal.

Found Not Taken, Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto, Canada.

2014

Found Not Taken / Tipo Passe, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Tipo Passe, Instituto Camões, Centro Cultural Português, Luanda, Angola.

Shifting Africa, Mediations Biennale Poznan, Poland.

Found Not Taken, Belfast Exposed Photography, Belfast, Northern Island.

2013

Luanda, Encyclopedic City, Palazzo Cini, Angolan Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy.

Edson Chagas, A Palazzo Gallery, Brescia, Italy.

Memorial Agostinho Neto, Luanda, Angola.

Landscapes, A Palazzo Gallery, Brescia, Italy.

2012

Zukunftsentwickler/Future Makers, Landes Museum, Bonn, Germany.

Live Festival, Lagos, Nigeria.

RAVY-International Visual Arts Festival, Yaoundé, Cameroon.

2011

SP Arte & SOSO Arte Contemporânea Africana, São Paulo.

Two person Exhibitions

2015

Edson Chagas / Ibrahim Mahama, Apalazzo Gallery, Brescia, Italy.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2017

UNTITLED, Tyburn Gallery, London, UK.

2016

Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA

2015

Broken English, Tyburn Gallery, London, UK.

Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA.

Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, Seattle Art Museum, USA.

Lay of the Land: New Photography from Africa, The Walther Collection Space, New York, USA.

Making Africa, Un Continente De Diseño Contemporáneo, Museo Guggenheim de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Bilbao, Spain.

Arte contemporânea na Coleção Sindika Dokolo, You Love Me, You Love Me Not, Municipal Gallery Almeida Garrett, Porto, Portugal.

Novo Banco Photo 2015, Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal.

First Donations, Zeitz MOCAA Pavilion, Cape Town, South Africa.

You Love Me, You Love Me Not, Sindika Dokolo Collection, Municipal Gallery Almeida Garrett, Portugal.

The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA.

2014

Chroma, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa.

Lagos Photo Festival, Lagos, Nigeria.

Journal, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK.

Here Africa, Contemporary Africa as seen through the Eyes of its Artists, Château de Penthes, Geneva-Pregny, Switzerland.

The Divine Comedy: Heaven Hell, Purgatory, Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, USA.

The Divine Comedy: Heaven Hell, Purgatory, Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany.

The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory And Hell, Revisited By Contemporary African Artists, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA.

Shifting Africa, Kunsthalle Faust, Hannover, Germany.

4th. Mediations Biennale 2014, Centrum Kultury Zamek, Poznan, Poland.

2013

No Fly Zone: Unlimited Mileage, Museu Colecção Berardo, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, Portugal.

Biennale di Venezia, 55^th International Art Exhibition, Venice, Italy.

Landscape, A Palazzo Gallery, Brescia, Italy.

Transit, ICCO Institute of Contemporary Culture, São Paulo, Brazil.

2012

MABAXA project, Luanda, Brazil.

RAVY-International Visual Arts Festival, Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Zukunftsentwickler/Future Makers, LVR Landes Museum, Bonn, Germany.

Live Festival, Lagos, Nigeria.

2011

SP ARTE & SOSO Arte Contemporânea Africana, São Paulo, Brazil.

2010

2nd Luanda Triennal, SOSO Arte Contemporânea, Luanda, Angola.

2nd Luanda Triennal, Natural History Museum, Salão Internacional de Exposições, Angolan Photography, Luanda, Angola.

Monographs

2015

de Oliveira, Balona, Chagas, Edson and Ana (eds.), Found Not Taken, Kehrer, Heidelberg, Germany, 2015.

Publications

2014

Schlinkert, Guido (ed.), Agenda Angola. Edson Chagas & Colecçao Ensa-arte, Espera, Rome, Italy, 2014.

Badovinac, Zdenka (et al.), The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, Kerber Verlag, 2014.

Higgins, Jackie, Kozloff, Max (eds.), The World Atlas of Street Photography, Yale University Press, 2014.

Biography & Press

2015

Kedmey, Karen, In New Exhibitions, MoMA and Guggenheim Take Stock of Photography Now, artsy.net, November 2015.

Azimi, Roxana, Passagers mystères, lemonde.fr, 27 January 2015.

Portfolio Edson Chagas et les passagers mystères, lemonde.fr, 26 January 2015.

Marsaud, Olivia, La plus grande collection africaine d’art contemporain prend ses quartiers au Portugal, lemonde.fr, 24 January 2015.

2014

Clarke, Christa, My Highlights from 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair 2014, artsy.net, October 2014.

2013

Nascimento, Paula, Rabolli Pansera, Stefano, National Participations: Angola, Video Interview, labiennale.org, 2013.

2016

Kedmey, Karen, The Brooklyn Museum’s African Mask Show Is a Complex, Powerful Exploration of Identity, artsy.net, 03 May 2016

Awards

2015

Nominated NOVO BANCO Photo Award.

2013

Golden Lion: best national participation, Angolan Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy.

Collections

72016Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa.

Nuno de Lima Pimentel, Lisbon, Portugal.