Victor Sousa

Victor Sousa (born in, Maputo, Mozambique), who also signed his work as Noba Ngay, was a contemporary Mozambican artist whose practice encompassed sculpture, painting, drawing and printmaking. While he is widely recognised for his ceramic sculptures, particularly his representations of the female form, his engagement with two-dimensional media formed a significant and sustained component of his artistic output.

Sousa’s paintings and other two-dimensional works should be understood as an autonomous strand of his practice rather than as preparatory studies for sculpture. From early in his career, he worked across media, developing a visual language that allowed similar thematic concerns to unfold on flat surfaces. These works frequently explore questions of identity, memory, spirituality and cultural continuity, often through stylised figuration and symbolic imagery.

His two-dimensional compositions are characterised by expressive line, rhythmic patterning and a strong emphasis on surface. Figures often appear flattened or icon-like, occupying pictorial spaces structured through repetition and ornamentation. Decorative motifs, markings and symbolic references drawn from African visual traditions are reconfigured within a contemporary idiom, producing images that are at once rooted in cultural heritage and forward-looking in form.

Colour plays a central role in Sousa’s paintings, where earthy palettes and bold contrasts evoke the tactile and material qualities of clay and fired ceramics. This chromatic and textural sensibility establishes a clear dialogue between his two- and three-dimensional practices. Across media, Sousa consistently pursued a transformation of traditional forms into contemporary visual statements, positioning his paintings as an integral component of his broader contribution to post-independence Mozambican art. References

References

Arte d’Gema (2025) Victor Sousa – biografia. Available at: https://www.artedegema.com/art... (Accessed: 8 January 2026).

Club of Mozambique (2017) Renowned Mozambican visual artist Victor Sousa dies at 65. Available at: https://clubofmozambique.com/n... (Accessed: 8 January 2026).

Verdade (2011) Desvendar “verdades ocultas”. Available at: https://verdade.co.mz/desvenda... (Accessed: 8 January 2026).

Viver Maputo (2012) Victor Sousa no Instituto Camões. Available at: https://www.vivermaputo.com/in... (Accessed: 8 January 2026).