This sculptural relief features a textured, earthy surface with a prominent sculptural element in the center - a stylized lion's face carved in low relief. The overall composition has a rough, weathered quality, with the lion's face emerging organically from the stone-like material. The artist has used a minimal, abstract approach to capturing the essence of the lion, focusing on its distinct features and facial expression through simple, economical forms. This piece likely draws inspiration from ancient relief carvings, reflecting a timeless, primal aesthetic. The artist's intention may have been to evoke a sense of strength, power, and the enduring presence of the natural world. ...
Through materials such as ceramics, pencil, pastel, paint, textiles, the artist questions her metamorphoses, the multiple bodies she experiences. Irina carries out introspective work at the crossroads of the fantastic and the intimate, also mixing questions of roots and the re-enchantment of spaces. Plates spread out on a table catch our eye, intrigue us. Some are flat, covered with different enamels, shiny or matte, sometimes almost gourmand, more or less iridescent. They seem to potentially contain the shapes that we find sculpted on the surface of other cards – unless it is deep inside them? Animal heads appear or disappear, they do not reveal themselves completely, still protected by their earthly world. The cards are constructed by hand, the touch allowing the surprise of these almost magical appearances. These cards accompany Irina like intimate presences. A certain tenderness emerges, perhaps also a disturbance, born from the confrontation with these curiously familiar looks. A sort of disturbing strangeness which fully resonates with the artist's other works. Irina invites us into her universe to share moments outside of time, to meet entities, sometimes close to an original state which tell something of the emotions which inhabit the artist. ...
Galerie Cecile Fakhoury opened its doors in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in September 2012. In May 2018, the gallery inaugurated its second space in Dakar, Senegal and a showroom in Paris, France. Shortly after, in March 2020, a new project space dedicated to emerging artists from Africa opened in Abidjan. In October 2021, Galerie Cecile Fakhoury inaugurated another gallery, opening in the 8th arrondissement of Paris on Avenue Matignon. The gallery promotes contemporary art from Africa and the Diaspora by providing visibility to the artistic diversity and creative spirit from the continent. Through its programming of solo and group exhibitions, participation in international art fairs, biennales, and collaboration with international galleries, Cecile Fakhoury is a leading force putting contemporary African art on the global map. The artists represented by the gallery are distinguished by their cultural identities and stories, they create a new language that crosses geographical boundaries and familiarities. They are observers of the world they live in, critics of society, and committed to their positions living within complex histories. In turn, they ask us to reconsider our own relation to the world. ...
