BORIS NZEBO | BLACK HISTORY HOTEL
13 October – 6 November 2015
Jack Bell Gallery London
Black History Hotel, 2015.
About:
Boris Nzebo’s paintings reflect on the surroundings of his hometown Douala, Cameroon’s largest city. He uses a strong color palette, evocative of the murals and graffiti found throughout the suburbs. With a nod towards kitsch, his works are instantly recognizable, personal and universal, with a visual vocabulary that would be familiar to Douala’s inhabitants. Nzebo’s stylized execution owes greatly to the painted haircut advertisements found outside Cameroon’s barbershops. Adapting this aesthetic, he creates portraits taken from the detailed studies of traditional African hairstyles. Often very elaborate, he combines them with informal snapshots of local neighbourhoods, urban architecture and scenes from daily life.
Follow Me, 2014.
Panic Hair Style, 2014.
Solo exhibitions include Etat des Lieux at l’Espace doual’art in Douala in 2013 and Vil-Visages at the Institut Français in Yaoundé, Cameroon in 2011. Recent acquisitions have been made by the Saatchi Gallery, London, UK. His work was included in the 2014 exhibition Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America and in the second installment Pangaea II currently on show at the Saatchi Gallery until September 2015.(text 1: 54 London).
Cameroonian Streets, 2014.