The Book of Casca (2021)

Discover Casca’s vivid world of imagined beings and African lore, transforming history into contemporary art.

On May 23, OpenArtExchange will open its doors for the solo exhibition The Book of Casca, with paintings and preliminary studies by the eponymous Ango-Luso artist Casca, who lives and works in the UK. During the festive opening weekend we provide a snack and a drink during your visit, during which you can talk to the artist himself on the opening day. In view of the current Corona measures, we are holding a walk-in weekend without a formal opening moment, where we can allow a maximum of 20 people in at the same time, mouth masks are mandatory when walking around and each must keep a distance of 1.5 m. Admission is of course free. 

The Book of Casca 

Since long Casca has had the habit to re-use old reading books to record his sketches of the imaginary beings that populate his mind. This time he found an old African travel book from 1830 on a dusty shelf in a library. Reading its pages on the Congo, he soon realized that the age of a book has little to do with its veracity. He decided to transform the book forever and add his own truth to its pages: the birth of The book of Casca 

Casca’s world, fueled by the stories of his childhood, his long sojourn with the Chokwe tribe in Angola, and his lifelong interest in indigenous African cultures and spirituality, is replete with an endless colorful parade of deformed figures, annotated with indigenous masks and symbols in a completely unique contemporary imagery. An alienating, associative world with a humane expression that moves and triggers instant recognition and new stories. A new truth about today’s world with all its bigger and smaller stereotypes. Little escapes his observing eye. Welcome to The Book of Casca. 

About Casca 

Casca (1976), is a self-taught artist born in Lisbon from an artist family with Angolan relatives. He is one of the few Angolan Luso artists in the world of contemporary Angolan art. His paintings drawings, collages and sculptures are deeply influenced by the masks, symbolism and ancient stories of indigenous Angolan cultures a.o. the Chokweh people in North Angola, whom he studied and lived with in his formative years. Since 2016 Casca has been been participating in various exhibitions in Angola, UK, The Netherlands and Germany.