Teresa Firmino Art for Sale and Sold Prices

b. 1993 -

TERESA KUTALA FIRMINO - (b. 1993 Pomfret, South Africa)

Teresa Kutala Firmino was born in 1993 in Pomfret*, a former military camp in the North West province of South Africa. She is a multi-disciplinary artist, now based in Johannesburg, working with an array of media including paint, photography and performance. She forms part of a collaborative art-duo called Kutala Chopeto, which she started with fellow artist Helena Uambembe. Their collaboration began as an investigation into their shared history as young women raised in the Pomfret community. This small community’s history is linked to the 32 Battalion soldiers of Angolan heritage who settled there after the African Border War. Their work addresses issues of identity, heritage and history associated with their family’s migration. Similar to her work with Kutala Chopeto, Firmino continues to explore different stories that are derived from the Pomfret community, and re-structures, re-writes and re-imagines them in different art forms.

* Pomfret is a desert town on the edge of the Kalahari Desert in northwest South Africa. Many of its inhabitants are former members of 32 Battalion, also known as Buffalo Battalion. These former soldiers were predominantly Portuguese-speaking Angolans who fought in the Border War on the South African government side in Angola and Namibia. The community remains largely Portuguese-speaking.