Ilidio Candja-Candja | Featured Works by Johnson Lowe Gallery

ILIDIO

CANDJA-CANDJA BILL LOWE GALLERY RECENT WORKS

CANDJA

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

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“Painting after painting, Candja Candja asserts his extraordinary creative freedom and produces a work of internal otherness to the art world without demagoguery or naïveté, influenced by what might have been his artistic training in the colourful tradition of his country.” | Victor Pinto

Phoenix Acrylic, Collage, and Mixed Media on Canvas 85 x 79 Inches

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

In his paintings, Mozambican-born artist Ilidio Candja Candja draws the audience into a personal exploration of his playful and dynamic energy. Executed in a style resonant with Abstract Expressionism and Action Painting, his works are characterized by spontaneous and confident brush strokes. Inspired by his heritage, the riot of colors, personal symbols and African textile prints all serve to infuse his canvases with both a psychological and visual vibrancy.

These painted collages by Candja are a compelling combination of cultural reflection and personal symbology. From abstracted backgrounds arise restless figures that belong to the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own constructed mythology. Impulsive and aggressive gestures that reference Action Painting come together to create blurred ghosts, demonic entities, arachnids, and skeletons. An enigmatic tension arises in the work with the layering of more subtle geometrical and mathematical objects, photographs, and decorative elements taken from traditional African art and textiles. Candja Candjaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art is a contemplation on the African culture combined with a pursuit of exploring his own restless spirit.

Afrodeezia No. 3

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas 79 x 71 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

CRITICAL REVIEW Many artist take years to carefully create its identity as painters; but Illídio Candja Candja merely followed his inspiration as painter, indifferent to associations and references to other contemporary artists, never forgetting his African origin. Candja Candja is like a manufacturer who believes that his products will always be special for themselves. Painting after painting, he asserts his extraordinary creative freedom and produces a work of internal otherness to the art world without demagoguery or naïveté, influenced by what might have been his artistic training in the colourful tradition of his country. Two years after moving from Maputo (where he was born) to live in Porto, the painting of Ilídio Candja has attracted the attention of many international experts. The first point to emphasize in the painting of Illídio Candja, is the way he is able to produce a universal painting; the universalism of his vision lies in how he uses images of handmade objects and ancient artefacts from the artist’s African imaginary, and the manner how he converts them into essential, unique elements in his painting, making use of collage in a modern context in a way that it becomes impossible to separate the collage-paintings of the artist’s path.

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Tatuagens Ancestrais

Acrylic, and Mixed Media on Canvas 85 x 79 Inches | 2015

Illídio’s painting isn’t about creating a critical position, but instead is an artistic, aesthetics and cultural practice analogous to those who are guided by a free behaviour, starting from the premise that art invents ways of inhabiting the world. The artist proposes us to inhabit his world, sending us an effective message of things that he is sensitive to, including those that concern him from a remix of thoughts and ideas of the past, present and future. The African experience of Ilídio Candja became several experiments determinative to the structure of his paintings: flickering between image and idea, identity and experience. Colourful and exotic, the paintings of Candja convert themselves into infinite imaginary manners, an intelligent coexistence between images of African culture and painting-collage’s abstract backgrounds on which the images are introduced and the African memory is activated. -Victor Pinto da Fonseca Plataforma Revólver Lisbon, September 2015

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Africo Futuro Sem Fim

Acrylic, Tapestry, and Mixed Media on Canvas 79 x 71 Inches | 2015

Mapiku Makossa

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas 55 x 59 Inches | 2013

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Mentes Brillhantes

Acrylic, Collage, and Mixed Media on Canvas 85 x 79 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Tropical Cerimony No. 2

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas 79 x 71 Inches | 2014

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Phata Phata

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas 85 x 79 Inches | 2015

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Untitled 2 (Chigubu)

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas 59 x 55 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Untitled No. 4

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas 47 x 43 Inches | 2014

Tropical Ceremony No. 4

Acrylic, Tapestry, and Mixed Media on Canvas 79 x 71 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Untitled No. 1

Acrylic, Tapestry, and Mixed Media on Canvas 85 x 79 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Make Peace With Nature No. 4 Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas 39 x 37 Inches | 2017

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Make Peace With Nature No. 5 Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas 39 x 37 Inches | 2017

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

PAPER WORKS

Composition

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Paper 47 x 60 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

DNA #5

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Paper 43 x 60 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

DNA #6

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Paper 42 x 59 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

DNA #7

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Paper 36 x 60 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

DNA #8

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Paper 36 x 60 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

DNA #9

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Paper 36 x 60 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Untitled No. 2

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Paper 40 x 77 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Untitled No. 1

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Paper 39 x 78 Inches | 2016

ILIDIO CANDJA-CANDJA

Untitled No. 8