René Tavares was born in São Tomé and Príncipe in 1983. He graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in Dakar, Senegal, received a scholarship at the Beaux-Arts in Rennes and studied the ARC / Rennes Project photography course at the same time. Tavares also holds a Master's in Art and Heritage Sciences from the Fine Arts University of Lisbon.
Tavares’ work is based on a process of research spanning through archives, photographs, and literature while bringing to the front stage themes related to historical and socio-political issues that affected different African countries. By questioning assimilated, neglected, and forgotten heritages and challenging the rigidity of categories and prejudices, the artist’s works are produced in an impulsive and engaged mode to raise awareness and trigger processes of resilience and social empowerment.
"My work reflects on the African diaspora and on the forms of miscegenation that have taken place; it also reflects my creative process as an artist in keeping with the rhythm of a mestization that overlaps times, places, and actors, diluting the watertight borders between domains." (René Tavares)
Highlights of his career include the selection as a finalist for the EDP Foundation New Artists Award (2022), the Public Vote Prize for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize (2022), the nomination for Africa’s most influential new artistic talent (FNB Joburg Art Fair, 2018), and the Artist Revelation Prize at São Tomé and Príncipe’s Biennale of Art and Culture (2002). Tavares' work is included in various relevant collections.