LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery is pleased to present "Ange Arthur Koua & friends", a group exhibition of works by Ivorian artist Ange-Arthur Koua, from November 5 to December 5, 2020, from November 5 to December 12, 2020.

Works by Ernest Düku, Yagor, Yseult and Piniang will be included in the exhibition.

Born in Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) in 1989, Ange-Arthur Koua obtained his diploma of Higher Artistic Studies (Master II Professional Visual Arts option Painting) from the National School of Fine Arts in Abidjan in 2015. He lives and works in Abidjan.

Living and working in the commune of Abobo that he was born in, Ange-Arthur wants to translate through his work the desire to "express himself freely and to defend causes that would not be the priority of others". Thus, very soon, during his training in a painting studio, the student felt imprisoned by the academicism of the use of paint as a material. "I want to be free to touch, to use everything as I see fit, as long as my inner self is satisfied".

The absoluteness of his quest provides us with an aesthetic of mixed techniques where paint and textiles mix. Thus translating in his work a "chaos world" on supports of recycled jeans and bags, in an assembly process where everything is "put down", he says, by instinct. He paints, dirties, burns, glues, sews, to obtain pieces charged with singular narrations.

For the exhibition MANsonge, at the LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery in 2019, he gave visitors the opportunity to explore his “tapestries”, the idea of the reality experienced by two worlds, between the visible and the invisible, like the popular belief in the East of the Côte d’Ivoire that the souls of the deceased cling to their clothes. There was also a series of works on paper representing faces that question the world of masks and traditional statuary.