ROOTS 2025 > Guest Artist > Amadeo Carvalho (Cape Verde)
Amadeo Carvalho (b. 1985, São Vicente, Cape Verde) is a contemporary visual artist who works across painting, poetry, and photography. Currently based in London, Carvalho has consistently developed an international practice that has placed his work in dialogue with diverse audiences and contexts. Carvalho produces richly layered and tactile compositions. Often anchored in his own photographs, these works unfold as sensory and narrative cartographies, where the convergence between word and image amplifies the aesthetic encounter and invites reflection and connection.
He has a degree in Design from IADE – Faculty of Design, Technology, and Communication, in Lisbon. In recent years, he has strengthened his presence at international exhibitions: in 2024, he presented Estudo de Cores — Atlântico Negro (Color Study — Black Atlantic) at the International Portuguese Language Institute in Praia, and participated in the 10th São Tomé and Príncipe Arts and Culture Biennial, including a joint exhibition with Yuran Henrique at the CACAU space. In 2025, he exhibited Human Cartography individually at Tech Park (Praia) and, in collaboration with Cida Lima, the exhibition Atlântico Negro at the Brazilian Embassy Residence (Praia).
In the same year, he took part in several important group exhibitions, such as Cartografias Transatlânticas (Loulé), Beyond Boundaries — A Collective Odyssey (Cape Verde Cultural Center, Lisbon), Afro Renaissance — Entre o Legado e as Transformações (Transatlantic Cartographies — Between Legacy and Transformations) promoted by Afrikanizm Art (Seixal), and Laboratório do Atlântico — Arte Contemporânea de São Tomé e Príncipe (Atlantic Laboratory — Contemporary Art from São Tomé and Príncipe) at UCCLA (Lisbon). Rooted in her Cape Verdean heritage, Carvalho’s practice explores issues of memory, black identity, kinship, and the central role of black women in shaping social and emotional structures.
Working with a wide range of media—including charcoal, screen printing, acrylic, volcanic pigments, handmade paper, transfers, and hand-drawn graphic elements — his works are part of important institutional collections, such as those of the Cape Verde Ministry of Finance, the Municipality of Loulé, the CACAU Museum in São Tomé, and the Mundu Nobu Association, as well as several private collections. In 2025, he was also co-commissioned to create a work for Dino d’Santiago’s opera, presented at the Belém Cultural Center in Lisbon. In 2024, his career was recognized by Bantumen’s Powerlist100, which highlights influential black personalities in Portuguese-speaking countries.
Financed by: República Portuguesa – Cultura, Juventude e Desporto, Direção-Geral das Artes and Município de Lagos
Support: Museu de Lagos, Município de Caldas da Rainha / Centro de Artes, CAAA – Centro para os Assuntos de Arte e Arquitectura (Guimarães), Messe Militar de Lagos, Teatro Experimental de Lagos
