When you ask his friends, they will tell you: when you go with him on the street you feel like moving with the president, everyone knows him, he greets everyone!
His art and appearance are an inspiration to all of us. A specific character, an interesting appearance, extremely honest and charming. Another of our artists, whose work we would predict a bright future for. Freta NGO deserves just the best! His art always provoke a reaction, no matter how it is but no one is indifferent. In my opinion, this is the most important thing, to be able to provoke emotion in every person. If you talk to people who know him, as soon as you mention his name you will notice a smile, followed by only nice words and telling crazy stories. His works adorn our gallery, and now his words will adorn my blog!
Why the nick name Freta NGO? NGO: Because all the surnames of my angolan ancestors ended on the syllable -ngo. And its also inside of the Name of the country "aNGOla".
Freta: Because i was searching for an alternative for Freddy that would Sound good together with Ngo.
We asked how he discovered his talent:
My style was always kind of infantile, when people started making fun of me and saying I couldn’t paint I was striving more and more for realism. I was around 15/16 years old. Then I discovered Basquiat. Suddenly, works I did a few years before, seemed to be approved. I felt like something was telling me that I am on the right way. I always dedicated most of my time to portrait-paintings. Imaginary and self-analytical. The face as the mirror of the soul.
His motivation and inspiration:
The aging visage of an old farmer from Alentejo. The facade of an abandoned nostalgic house and its emerging layers of faded colours. A homeless person dancing on the street. Those are the little things that inspire me. And then I am just waiting for motivation. Waiting for the energy to be converted into clumsy gestures and to depict my perishable memories on any surface I find.
Freta NGO´s opinion about art on Madeira island:
The island is too small for a characteristic art scene. Madeira is a place of transition. But there still exist great artists. The majority are immigrants or locals that studied abroad and returned one day. A lot of art that u find on madeira is made for tourists. Its art that out of the artists financial necessities is made for the taste of northern european tourists that are searching to satisfy their dreams of the luso-tropical exotic. Furthermore, you will still find some rebellious avantgarde artist, appearing time by time in between the bust of Salazar and colonial monuments, resisting the “fofocas” and being surprisingly close to the Zeitgeist. History taught us Portuguese to be economical.
Hobbies and free time:
How you spend your time? I was playing for a long time of my life in different bands. When I am bored of making music I make art. And when I am bored of making art I am making music.
About the project arte de portas abertas: Yes I would like to participate in renewing the project after my stickers slowly vanished. I don’t want to give an opinion on what I think about the project. I have heard to many discussions about it. Life moto: Tralala! FIND MORE ABOUT FRETA NGO
Veronika Zhezhovska 30.11.2020
