Bertina Lopes was a Mozambican-born painter and sculptor whose powerful, expressive work explored identity, freedom and the political realities of colonialism and exile.

Born in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique, Lopes studied fine art in Lisbon before returning to her homeland in 1953. There, she became closely involved with Mozambique’s emerging cultural nationalism and anti-colonial movement. Forced to leave the country in 1963, she settled in Rome, where she continued to develop a distinctive artistic language rooted in her African heritage and international modernist influences.

Combining bold colour, gestural brushwork and abstracted, mask-like forms, Lopes’s work moves between figuration and abstraction. Her paintings and sculptures draw on Mozambican cultural traditions while engaging with Cubism, Expressionism and European avant-garde art. Throughout her career, her work remained deeply connected to questions of African identity, resistance and liberation.

In the 1990s, Bertina Lopes entered a mature phase in her practice, shaped by decades of political engagement, exile, and artistic experimentation. Born in Mozambique in 1924, she trained in Lisbon at the Escola de Belas-Artes. Lopes returned to Mozambique in 1953, becoming involved in anti-colonial circles. African identity and political resistance became central themes in her practice. Due to her political activity she eventually relocated to Rome in the 1960s, where she remained for much of her life.

Working from Italy, Lopes developed a visual language that moves between figuration and abstraction, defined by bold, calligraphic lines and a sensitive use of colour. Her works from this period draw on histories of anti-colonial struggle and the wider African diaspora. Creating layered compositions conveying themes of identity, displacement, and resilience.