Mario Soares captures the experiences of the immigrant who must often contend with unsettling sensations of otherness, foreignness and the hope of invisibility amidst Afrophobia. The immigrant encounters not only the longing to belong culturally and in urban spatialities as when at home; but frequent bouts of nostalgia, only subdued through quiet personal remembrance.
Mario Soares is a Mozambican artist, currently based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Soares moved from Chimio, Mozambique to Johannesburg in 2008. Soares initially worked as an artist and embroiderer for Boitumelo in Hillbrow, and in 2010 he began his studies at Artist Proof Studio. Soares graduated in 2013 and proceeded to develop his skills in etching. Soares’ medium is printmaking, spray painting and collage. Soares now works as a full-time independent artist from his studio in Johannesburg.