The artwork appears to be a carved wooden head, with a rough, textured surface and an abstract, expressive facial features. The composition focuses on the three-dimensional form, with emphasis on the distinct shapes and patterns created by the carving process. The overall impression conveys a sense of weathered, aged character. The artwork likely reflects the artist's exploration of primitive sculptural techniques and their ability to evoke timeless human expressions through minimal, primal forms. This carved head piece may be part of the artist's broader investigation into the enduring power of simplified, archetypal representations of the human face. ...
Both a sculptor and a performer, Jems Koko Bi mixes avant-gardist influences to his firmly african history. In his works, he questions the notions of space and time, within a wider and ongoing reflexion on his own existence.''The trees give me instructions and I carry them out in the wood. They advise me and I tell their stories.''
His wooden sculptures initiate a conversation with the forces of nature. In his studio at the heart of the forest, immense sculptures see the light of day and interrogates the identity and the ancesters, the native land and the exile. Through a subtle and confident gesture, the artist reveals the outlines of matter.
Following multiple deafening swings, a face comes out of the stump. The mechanised, sympathetic, hand drags it out. It has always existed, but it was hidden from the world. The gesture reveals its shape. In rhythm, through gentle touches, the artist seems to caress its surface, which he transforms at each passage. He awakens the element with a mastered intuitive precision: a dance armed with an iron fist in a breath of tenderness. ...
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. ...
