Albano Cardoso (Luanda, 1966) is a multi-media artist whose work includes painting,photography, poetry, and video. Based in Luanda, he makes the practice of art the key elementin grasping everyday life in this post-war site. His painting use colour to produce harmonyandcontention, while his photos extend a welcoming handshake that invites the weary, curious,and unsuspecting into conversation.
He graduated (1984-89) from the Teacher Training School Instituto Normal de Educação“Garcia Neto” in Luanda, and taught the Portuguese and English Language subject to secondary school students.
During the 1980s he had intense activity as a high-level athlete in the Angolan national team,at all age groups. This gave him the opportunity to get to know places like Italy; Eastern European countries; and Francophone Africa. A road accident interrupted the completion ofa fruitful sporting career in his name.
In the 1990s, he attended the College of Literature, Science and Arts at the University ofMichigan, in Ann Arbor, inthe United States. Later he moved and worked in Lisbon (Portugal)in the music industry as Director of Marketing and Cultural Investments for R.M.S. music publisher.
In 2005, he returned to Angola, after 16 years outside the country. In his hometown, hewrotefor the weekly newspaper Novo Jornal since its first edition, until mid-2008. In his column, he presented the only coverage of the first contemporary art fair in Africa, Johannesburg, Samdtomn 2008. He wrote and composed music with the artist Paulo Flores released on thealbums “Xé Povo”; “Ex-Combatants. He served as General Coordinator of the 1st Luanda artstriennial, despite currently having ceased any connection to this institution.
