©Prince Gyasi, The Last One
During the lockdown you can find the gallery's works on its website
Little by little, the Nil Gallery is making a place for itself in the contemporary African art market, which has been booming for 5 years. Emerging artists from the black continent are not the only ones represented there. But alongside visual artists from Asia or Poland, they hold the upper hand on rue des Coutures-Saint-Gervais, adjacent to the Picasso Museum.
Here we admire contemporary figurative and pop artists, often original and spectacular, never miserabilist. The audacious programming of Paul William and Hugo Zeitoun, two thirty-year-old gallery owners, is, on the contrary, representative of a joyful Afro-optimism.
This is also the case with Ghanaian artist Prince Gyasin , whom Vanity Fair included in its 2018 list of nine avant-garde visual artists to watch. Apple, for its part, collaborates with this 23-year-old based in Accra, who works with a vibrant color palette in flat monochrome tones that resonate with our times.
His "colorblock" photos, taken with an iPhone or a digital Fuji camera, push saturation to the maximum and explore the nuances of black skin, celebrating its photogenic quality. Like Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Prince Gyasina has the unique characteristic of being synesthetic: he is one of those rare people capable of " visualizing sounds , " " hearing colors , " and associating colors with emotions.
©Prince Gyasin, Restoration
©Prince Gyasin, Projection
Another revelation is the self-taught Nigerian artist Alimi Adewale , whose work addresses social issues: unemployment, neglected youth, mortality, freedom of expression, and political oppression. Between traditional African sculpture and contemporary art, the minimalist faces ( €18,000 a pair ) of this former engineer explore problems at the heart of society.
Finally, the paintings of Abé Odedina , also from Nigeria, evoke the complex and subtle world of his compatriot, the writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Focused on Yoruba culture, the woodwork of this artist, who lives between London and Salvador Bahia (Brazil), revisits classic themes at the crossroads of Greek and Yoruba mythologies. His paintings (starting at €5000) are part of several major international collections, including the British Government Art Collection and that of the fashion designer (and collector) Agnès B.
Nile Gallery
14 Rue des Coutures Saint-Gervais, 75003 Paris
Monday to Friday, 13 p.m. to 19:30 p.m.
Tel: 01 44 54 04 07
Text: Katia Barillot
02.11.20
