Objects with the weight of ritual
Ulisses Oviedo was born in Cuba in 1952 and has been part of Mozambican art for more than three decades. Trained from 1964 at the Leopoldo Romañach studio-school in Santa Clara and at the National Art School of Havana (1967–72), he took his degree in Painting at the Higher Institute of Art of Havana (1983) and taught drawing and painting at Havana's San Alejandro National School of Fine Arts before moving to Maputo in 1990, to teach at the National School of Visual Arts (ENAV).
In Maputo he became a central figure of Kulungwana — Associação para o Desenvolvimento Cultural: member of its artistic committee, curator of exhibitions such as Traços (2018) and mentor to younger Mozambican artists. He held the solo exhibition Anónimos at Galeria Kulungwana (2013) and took part in Ao Encontro dos Ventos at the Fernando Leite Couto Foundation, alongside Naguib, Francisco Sepúlveda and Patrice Giorda.
His recent work moves between painting and assemblage — masks, boards and totemic forms built from oil, card and found matter, in earth, rust and bone tones that give each piece the gravity of something excavated rather than made. Six works are offered in Idasse & Friends — Colours of Mozambique, ahead of a forthcoming single-artist sale.
Maputo, Galeria Kulungwana — Anónimos, solo, 2013
Maputo, Galeria Kulungwana — curator, Traços, 2018
Maputo, Fundação Fernando Leite Couto — Ao Encontro dos Ventos, with Naguib, Francisco Sepúlveda and Patrice Giorda
