The Angolan capital of Luanda is to welcome a new art space and residency program. Funded by Wissam and Hiba Nesr, whose billionaire family owns the agro-industrial food-production and distribution business Webcor Group, the Nesr Art Foundation will display Nesr’s private collection of Angolan and African art, and will elevate the work of Angolan artists. Activist and collagist Pamina Sebastião and painter Osvaldo Ferreira, both of whom live and work in Luanda, have been announced as the first participants in the philanthropic organization’s residency program, to launch at the foundation’s opening.
“The foundation hopes to add an important, internationally facing space to the contemporary art landscape in Angola,” said Wissam Nesr. The Webcor CEO pointed out that “there are few institutions besides the galleries and very few spaces dealing with contemporary practices and offering facilities and opportunities to artists. African art, and particularly Angolan art, remains under-represented worldwide.” However, he noted, “a new generation of contemporary artists from the continent are [sic] becoming increasingly visible internationally, with several Angolan artists pivotal to this shift.”
The residency program, which is open to all emerging artists based in Angola regardless of nationality, provides a fully furnished studio and living space, as well as a monthly stipend and production grant, for eight artists annually. Artists-in-residence work in pairs, in four sessions lasting three months each, with each artist seeing their work exhibited at the foundation. Artists receive a fully furnished studio and living space, as well as a monthly stipend and production grant, before seeing their work exhibited at the foundation. According to Nesr, “Artists who have not benefited from international exhibitions and institutional support will be prioritized in the selection process.”
Though support for artists in the country has been historically scant, Angola in recent years has made inroads into the international art scene, in 2013 hosting its first pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Additionally, the country is home to a number of globally recognized artists, including multidisciplinary artist Binelde Hyrcan, printmaker and installation artist Délio Jasse, painter, photographer, and filmmaker António Ole; multimedia artist Nelo Teixeira; and painter Francisco Vidal.