Francisco José Ribeiro Lopes dos Santos, known mainly as Francisco Santos (born 17 May 1962 in
Luanda,
Angola) is an
Angolan/
Portuguese multi-talented artist. He is known by many names in various industries. As a
swimmer, he uses the name, Francisco Lopes Santos. In
visual arts, he is known as Xesko. In
poetry, he used the name Elias Karipande. In
fantasy and
science fiction, Francisco used the name Alan J. Banta, whose works were published in
English and
Portuguese.[1]
As a
sportsman, he represented Angola in swimming at the
1980 Summer Olympics (Men's 100 m Breaststroke[2] and Men's 4 × 100 m Medley Relay[3]).
He was honored by the
Angolan Olympic Committee in 2014 for being one of the first Angolan Olympic ambassadors.[4]
Biography
Francisco's parents were
Portuguese, and immigrated to Angola in 1959, where he grew up immersed in the African quarters (musseques) of Luanda.[5]
Since a young age, he was dedicated to the arts and sports. He began writing at 14 and painting at 16 years old (
watercolours and
Chinese Ink). In that time, he had published some short stories and poems in several magazines and newspapers.[6]
In secondary school, he was the founder and publisher of the magazine "The Bantalas" entirely dedicated to the arts (Fine Art Painting, Photograph, Prose and Poetry). He participated in a contest of Art Painting whose objective was the creation of a poster commemorative of the anniversary of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (
MPLA) obtaining the 1st place.[6]
In sports, he obtained several titles of National Champion, in
Swimming (consecutively from 1972 to 1980) and
Chess (1977 and 1979). He also represented his nation abroad several times, being the last time in the
1980 Summer Olympics (
Moscow).[7][8][9]
Francisco abandoned politics when he moved to Portugal in 1986.[6] In Portugal, he began a career as a
musician under the name of Francis Riba, having created several musical groups, the better known being the psychedelic rock band
ZEM.[10]
From 1982 to 1999, he was involved in several musical and theatrical projects as a technician, musician, producer and director, writing several adaptations and two original pieces.[6]
He graduated in the
Soviet Union in 1986 in
Chemical Engineering, where he frequented the courses of "Scientific Drawing" and "Creative Thought in Post-Modernism". In
Portugal, he graduated in Data Processing, Systems Engineering and Programming. He also frequented the Courses of “Improvement in Painting Techniques for Oil Portraits”, promoted by the Fine Art-Painter Master Almaia, “Photograph and Graphic Design”, from
IADE (Institute of Visual Arts, Design and Marketing), “Aesthetics and Theories of the Contemporary Art" and "Art Painting and Visual intervention”, from
SNBA (National Society of Fine Arts).[6]
He has an MA of Contemporary Fine Arts from the Sheffield Institute of Arts (
Sheffield Hallam University),
Sheffield,
England, and has several works displayed in public places and he is represented in several private and official collections in
Portugal,
Russia,
France,
Spain,
Brazil, UK and Angola.