Born in Mozambique, living between Mozambique and Potugal, Teresa Roza d’Oliveira (1945 - 2019) is best known for the unexpected combination of colours and forms that make her pictorial world, inhabited by strange characters and anthropomorphic animals.
A white, Luso-descendant artist, part of a generation of Mozambicans which included Alberto Chissano, Malangatana Ngwenya and Ernesto Shikhani, d'Oliveira was an important activist for the independence of Mozambique. Due in part to her personal life - d'Oliveira was in a relationshipwith a woman from 1990 until she died in 2019 - she has been written out of the history of an artistic and political scene in which she played a major role.
D’Oliveira (1945–2019) participated in multiple solo and group exhibitions in several countries — including Mozambique, Angola, Portugal and Spain — during her life. Her work is represented in multiple museums, including the Pretoria Museum and Durban City Museum, South Africa, and the National Art Museum and the Chissano Museum House, Mozambique.
D’Oliveira’s artistic estate was integrated into Perve Galeria’s collection in January 2022. In the same year, her artwork (alongside Reinata Sadimba’s) was highlighted at AKAA’s VIP Lounge, and represented in an auction dedicated to modern and contemporary African art promoted by French auction house Piasa. In March 2023, she was included in an important auction by Sotheby’s in London.