Fernando Hamilton Barbosa Elias, also known as Mito or Mito Elias (born 9 August 1965) is a Cape Verdean artist, visual artist, poet and performer.
Biography
Mito Elias was born in Praia, Santiago, Cape Verde. He studied art at Centro de Arte & Comunicação Visual Arco (Ar.Co) in Lisbon, Portugal, between 1989 and 1992. He has lived and worked in the diaspora since 1989, developing an original imagery language consisting of the search for Creole oral traditions and tales, a symbiotic style between wash, writing and multimedia, and has thus been named Mare Calamus. Since 1983, he has regularly presented his exhibits, work drawn, painted, written or video-graphed, travelling to all corners of the world. He is represented in exhibitions all over the world, including the World Bank (USA), BNU (Macao, China), Afro Brasil Museum (São Paulo, Brazil), Regional Government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, Presidency of the Cape Verde Republic, Embassy of Cape Verde in Lisbon and Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria, Australia. He has lived in Melbourne, Australia, since 2013. He runs Fandata Studio, together with his wife, who is also a visual artist. He works as a visual arts tutor and community facilitator in many projects around Melbourne.
Exhibitions
Selected group exhibitions
1984: Corêto Visual - Corêto da Praça/Centro Cultural Português, Praia, Cape Verde 1991: AR.CO - Lisbon, Portugal 1992: Palácio Foz - Lisbon, Portugal 1993: Hotel Méridièn - Luanda, Angola 1994: Culturgest - CGD - Lisbon, Portugal 1997: The Karantonha Exhibit - Boston Center For The Arts, USA 1998: Universidad de Lecce, Italy 2001: Arte nas Terras Raianas. Moura, Portugal 2002: I Bienal de S.Tomé e Princípe – S. Tomé e Príncipe 1996: Mosteiros dos Jerónimos - Lisbon, Portugal 2006: LUSOVIDEOGRAFIA – Espaço Durex - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2007: Le Bourgeois Experimental - St. German des Prés, Paris, France 2008: Tentativa de Agotar un Lugar Africano – In Continum - Centre d'Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona, Spain ECOS À BOLINA (Na Rota De Calamus) - CINUSP, Sao Paulo, Brazil AFRICA NOW! - Emerging Talents From a Continent on The Move - World Bank, Washington DC, USA 2012: The Script Road - Si Stau (noção 1ª de Macau) - Old Court House, Macau 2018: Personnel Experience – Footscray Community Arts Centre - Melbourne - Australia 2021: De Dentro e Fora – UCLLA – Lisbon – Portugal 2023: Wyndham Art Prize - Wyndham Art Gallery - Australia