Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien

Born in 1990 to an Ivorian father and a Guadeloupean mother, Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien grew up between Abidjan and Paris. She lives and works in Paris. Trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Cergy, Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien has developed an ambitious, sensitive and polymorphous personal practice. Creator of new forms, explorer of materials and signs, Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien defines herself as a storyteller of poems. Like labyrinths or rebus, her works compose new topographies around the themes of femininity, identity and the body, at the crossroads of her Caribbean and West African heritage. The artist’s works, on the border of sculpture, weaving and installation, offer us the possibility of navigating the meanders of their poetic narratives, of losing the landmarks that have been bequeathed to us in order to perhaps better redraw a path of life that is our own. ...

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. ...