Born 1979, Port-Gentil, Gabon
Diverses – Cités.
Boris Nzebo makes paintings that draw on the surroundings of his home town Douala, Cameroon’s largest city. He uses a strong colour palette that evokes the murals and graffiti of street culture found throughout Douala’s suburbs. While at times kitsch, his works are instantly recognizable – simultaneously personal and universal – and speak a language familiar to Douala’s inhabitants. Nzebo’s stylized execution owes a lot to painted haircut signs found outside Cameroon’s barber shops. Appropriating the language of advertising he creates portraits taken from detailed studies of traditional African hairstyles, often elaborate, and combines them with informal snapshots of local neighbourhoods, urban architecture and scenes from daily life.
Auberge du Boulet, 2013.
“How to define Boris Nzebo’s work? ‘Neo Pop Art’ says the artist himself. A turbulent heir to Warhol and Haring, the thirty-something painter brings a contemporary urban touch to the world of pop art (populaire in the French sense of ‘ordinary, working-class’, in francophone Cameroon): everyday city life, captured through his female subjects and the shop signs he painted at the very beginning of his career. Nzebo is a citizen of the world, exploring its cities and showing his work around the globe – especially London (the Jack Bell Gallery).” Qoute from Rita Diba in I Am Africa, July 2014.
Construction Mentale, 2013.
Etats des Lieux, 2013.
HLM, 2013.
Courtesy Jack Bell Gallery London.