Francisco Vidal is best known for his paintings and drawings which bring together bold colour and pattern on handmade paper or canvas, often tiled together to create installations. The artist’s work playfully blends various aesthetic influences, including Cubism, African wax-print textiles, and 1980s hip-hop culture, as well as contemporary graffiti and street art. Born in Portugal to Angolan and Cape Verdean parents, the artist deals with ideas which are closely tied to the diaspora experience, examining narratives and identities which arise from the hybridity of a cross-cultural upbringing. Colonial histories and their post-colonial consequences are interrogated in his work, with a strong emphasis on the impact of labour practices, conflict and violence.
The artist exhibited as part of the Angolan Pavilion for at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, as well as the 2015 Expo Milano in Milan. In 2017, his work was shown as part of the Afropolitan Festival at Bozar in Brussels and in 2018, his work will be included in Encontro em Macau, the Sino-Lusophone Cultural and Arts Festival.