François-Xavier Gbré

François-Xavier Gbré

BornNationalityBased In
1978IvorianAbidjan
Biography

Living and working between France and Ivory Coast, this mixed-race Ivorian artist, who grew up in the North of France, faces Côte d'Ivoire's change, economic growth, great urban expansion, and above all vestiges. Step by step, François-Xavier Gbré creates a landscape of his own through a collection of photographs, which reveal hidden aspects of everyday life. The past in Gbré's photographs is foreign and unfinished. United by a methodical, often distanced perspective on architecture and landscape as a form of documentary evidence, his work recalls the landmark photography of Lewis Baltz, Stephen Shore, and Guy Tillim. From Mali to Israel, from Lille to Rabat, he photographs abandoned constructions that bear the traces of the social and political history of their country. François-Xavier Gbré's photographs cast a detached eye on these buildings and the symbolic weight that nations lay upon them. With his series Tracks, started in 2009, he deals with the symbolism of once-valorized objects, now left behind. His images of interior scenes and the surfaces of abandoned buildings constructed during the colonial era or at the moment of independence sustain an examination of aesthetic and sociopolitical forces on architecture. With a soft radicality, he testifies of an interval, of those swinging moments intensely revealed by architecture. With a sensibility that is deeply engaged in recording the state of the world and partaking in it through photography, François-Xavier Gbré's photographs reveal a passing, a track. The unexpected object or detail that brings back history is always present, moreover actual. In the urban confusion, where we sometimes get lost, and throughout his works, the question of our lifestyles, our social interactions and our relation to History, is raised on a local scale, as an echo of universal expression. ...

Selected Artworks
Eko Atlantic #5, Lagos, Nigeria
Eko Atlantic #3, Lagos, Nigeria
Quartier Kôré, Ségou, Mali
Les fantômes verts
François-Xavier GbréLes fantômes verts, 2021
90 x 120cm
Funérailles
Terre brûlée, Ségou, Mali
Misi, Balazan, Ségou, Mali
Grand Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire
Strates #2
François-Xavier GbréStrates #2, 2022
160 x 120cm
Eko Atlantic #2, Lagos, Nigeria
Installation Mali Militari
Ait Kamara
Al Hoceima
Badès #1
Badès #2
Badès #3
Badès #4
Balazan, Ségou, Mali
Bamako, Mali
François-Xavier GbréBamako, Mali, 2012
100 x 150cm
Beni Boufra
Beni Boufra #1
Beni Boufra #10
Beni Boufra #11
Beni Boufra #12
Beni Boufra #13
Beni Boufra #14
Beni Boufra #15
Beni Boufra #16
Beni Boufra #17
Beni Boufra #18
Beni Boufra #19
Beni Boufra #2
Beni Boufra #20
Beni Boufra #3
Beni Boufra #4
Beni Boufra #5
Beni Boufra #6
Beni Boufra #6
Beni Boufra #7
Beni Boufra #8
Beni Boufra #9
Cala Iris #1
Cala Iris #2
Cala Iris #3
Cala Iris #4
Cala Iris #5
Campement
François-Xavier GbréCampement, 2021
45 x 60cm
Chair, Tracks series, Tiberias
Cheval, Bamako
François-Xavier GbréCheval, Bamako, 2013
100 x 150cm
Dakar, Sénégal
François-Xavier GbréDakar, Sénégal, 2012
100 x 150cm
Décharge d’Akouédo, Abidjan
Doors #1, Tracks series, Lyon
Eden
François-Xavier GbréEden, 2021
120 x 160cm
Eko Atlantic #1, Lagos, Nigeria
Eko Atlantic #10, Lagos, Nigéria
Eko Atlantic #3, Lagos, Nigeria
Eko Atlantic #4, Lagos, Nigeria
Eko Atlantic #5, Lagos, Nigeria
Eko Atlantic #6, Lagos, Nigeria
Eko Atlantic #7, Lagos, Nigeria
Eko Atlantic #8, Lagos, Nigeria
Eko Atlantic #9, Lagos, Nigeria
Émergence, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire,
Fadjiguila #1, Bamako, Mali
Fadjiguila #2, Bamako, Mali
Fadjiguila #3, Bamako, Mali
Funérailles
Gorée, Dakar, Sénégal
Grand Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire
Hôtel de France #1
François-Xavier GbréHôtel de France #1, 2021
160 x 120cm
L'Éclat
François-Xavier GbréL'Éclat, 2021
160 x 120cm
L'Épave
François-Xavier GbréL'Épave, 2021
80 x 60cm
La Cage
François-Xavier GbréLa Cage, 2015
45 x 60cm
La Cité
François-Xavier GbréLa Cité, 2015
120 x 160cm
La Coulée
François-Xavier GbréLa Coulée, 2021
120 x 160cm
La dernière danse
François-Xavier GbréLa dernière danse, 2021
160 x 120cm
La Fournaise
François-Xavier GbréLa Fournaise, 2021
160 x 120cm
La Tortue
François-Xavier GbréLa Tortue, 2015
45 x 60cm
La Vague
François-Xavier GbréLa Vague, 2021
160 x 120cm
Le bois sacré
François-Xavier GbréLe bois sacré, 2021
45 x 60cm
Le Socle
François-Xavier GbréLe Socle, 2021
45 x 60cm
Les fantômes verts
François-Xavier GbréLes fantômes verts, 2021
90 x 120cm
L’arbre du sauveur, Bamako
Maquis #1, Sotuba, Bamako
Misi, Balazan, Ségou, Mali
Missabougou, Bamako
François-Xavier GbréMissabougou, Bamako, 2011
100 x 150cm
Néon #1, Yopougon, Abidjan
Oued Essif-N16_T
François-Xavier GbréOued Essif-N16_T, 2013
102 x 136cm
Plateau #1, Abidjan
François-Xavier GbréPlateau #1, Abidjan, 2013
75 x 100cm
Pont HKB #1, Cocody, Abidjan
Pyramide, Saint Louis, Sénégal
Quai fruitier, Plateau, Abidjan
Quartier Kôré, Ségou, Mali
Route Izemmouren
Sans Titre, Mali
Sebt Beni Gimil, N 16
François-Xavier GbréSebt Beni Gimil, N 16, 2013
150 x 100cm
Sotuba, Bamako
François-Xavier GbréSotuba, Bamako, 2013
100 x 150cm
Station CIDP #1, Ségou, Mali
Station CIDP #2, Ségou, Mali
Strates
François-Xavier GbréStrates, 2021
160 x 120cm
Strates #2
François-Xavier GbréStrates #2, 2022
160 x 120cm
Targuist #1
Targuist #2
Terre brûlée, Ségou, Mali
Torès #4
Torès #5
Torrès #1
Torrès #2
Tracks, usines
François-Xavier GbréTracks, usines, 2014
117 x 571cm
Untitled
François-Xavier GbréUntitled, 2013
110 x 370cm
Untitled
François-Xavier GbréUntitled, 2015
12 x 16cm
Eko Atlantic #1, Lagos, Nigeria
Eko Atlantic #10, Lagos, Nigéria
Station CIDP #2, Ségou, Mali
Pont HKB #1, Cocody, Abidjan
Abidjan Côte d'Ivoire #07
Hôtel de France #1
François-Xavier GbréHôtel de France #1, 2021
160 x 120cm
L'Épave
François-Xavier GbréL'Épave, 2021
80 x 60cm
L'Éclat
François-Xavier GbréL'Éclat, 2021
160 x 120cm
Gallery Representation
Awards
Prix Pictet2013
Biennals
Brighton Photo Biennial2010 - Brighton
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