Story of Matola
Matola City Hall, Mozambique
A mural over 50 metres wide wrapping the new municipal building, telling the story of the city in one continuous burst of colour.
Maputo · Mozambique
Sebastião
Coana
Painter, muralist and sculptor. Colour pushed to the edge of the canvas, then off it — onto three thousand square metres of Maputo wall.
- 25+
- countries collected
- 50m
- widest mural
- 1995
- first brush
Oil paintingStreet muralsCeramic totemsMaputoMixed mediaPublic artBeijing 798ManhiçaOil paintingStreet muralsCeramic totemsMaputoMixed mediaPublic artBeijing 798Manhiça
Selected works
Oil, acrylic, jute and salvaged textile, layered until the surface has as much to say as the image.
The Wheels of Dream
As Rodas do Sonho
Mixed media on canvas · 2024
The Wheels of Dream II
As Rodas do Sonho II
Mixed media on canvas · 2024
Reconstrução
Reconstruction · 180 × 98 cm
Mixed media on canvas · 2025
Lamento do Mar
Song of the Sea
Acrylic and textile on canvas · 2025
Águas Profundas
Deep Waters
Acrylic and textile on canvas · 2025
Terra Queimada
Burnt Earth
Mixed media on canvas · 2025
Constelação
Constellation
Mixed media grid on canvas · 2025
Casal Pescador
Fisher Couple
Acrylic and jute on canvas · 2025
Círculo Azul
Blue Circle
Mixed media on round canvas · 2025
Círculo Turquesa
Turquoise Circle
Mixed media on round canvas · 2025
Fogo e Maré
Fire and Tide
Heavy impasto on canvas · 2025
Totem
Ceramic sculpture, gallery view
Painted ceramic on plinth · 2025
Walls, streets, cities
Public commissions and community projects across Mozambique — painting where everybody can see it, whether they meant to visit a gallery or not.
Marrabenta Walls
Downtown Maputo
Drummers and dancers painted across a street facade, part of an ongoing programme of murals that give a neighbourhood back its pride.
Guardian
Coastal sculpture park, Maputo
A free-standing painted panel: a warrior holding a spear in one hand and a book in the other, facing the sea.
Bring Back Maputo
Maputo, ongoing
Three thousand square metres of wall painting that turned a red-light district into a visited neighbourhood and put its women to work.
Painting in the Street
Maputo
Ladders, buckets and a wall: most of Coana's work happens outdoors, in full view of the people who live with it afterwards.
Colour Park
Matola
Concrete ruins repainted as an open-air playground of blocks, arches and figures.
The story
Coana was born in 1987 in the rural district of Manhiça, in Maputo province, where his family survived the brutal attacks of the civil war. Growing up in a community the war had broken left him with a stubborn sense of duty: part of what his art earns goes straight back into rural social projects.
He found art at eight years old, in 1995, and joined the youth programme of the National Museum of Art in Maputo in 2000. He went on to graduate from the school of architecture at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2012, and holds a master's in international finance from UIBE. He speaks Portuguese, English and Mandarin.
Today he moves between oil painting, mixed media, ceramic sculpture and monumental street murals — all of it fed by daily life and dynamic colour. His work is held by the National Museum of Art in Mozambique and in private collections in more than 25 countries.
Selected exhibitions
- 2025Solo show of new mixed-media works and ceramic totems, Maputo
- 2020Curated Expo KuImbondi, Galeria Porto de Maputo, Mozambique
- 2019Expo Transcending, Maputo City Mall, Mozambique
- 2017Annual Expo, National Museum of Art, Maputo
- 2015Symphony of Cultures, Kempinski Hotel, Beijing, China
- 2011–14Taipei Art Revolution, Taipei, Taiwan
- 2012Inspiring Artists, Fox Gallery, Shanghai, China
- 2007Colored Africa, Colors of Joy Gallery, Beijing 798, China
- 2005New York Art Expo, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York
- 2005Behind the Canvas, Newtown, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2003World Youth Arts Expo, Hyvinkää, Finland
Awards
- 2019Startupper of the Year, TOTAL Mozambique
- 2018All-Africa Top Innovator, AbInBev Sustainability Challenge, South Africa
- 2017Entrepreneur of the Year, ANJE / BCI
- 2007National Mural Painting Award, PSI Jeito Mozambique
- 2005Expo Momentum Mural Painting Award, Alto Maé, Maputo
- 2004UNESCO Art on Human Rights Award, Maputo